Bloody nurse
by Matylda Tyler
Summary: Kaname was always there to help her. To save her. Let HER be the one to help and save HIM for a change...
1. Chapter 1

A/N: My very first Vampire Knight story. Pardon my grammar.

Disclaimer: I do not own the VK series.

"talking"

"_thinking"_

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Bloody nurse**

**Chapter 1**

Why is it that no matter what you do, morning always comes too early…especially on weekdays…

Yuuki groaned. She just hated getting up when every cell in her body refused to obey her already disobedient brain.

"Yuuki."

There has to be a rule for that. Guardians shouldn't be obliged to get up at the same time as others.

"Yuuki, wake up."

Nope, definitely not. Guardians are special and needed, therefore their classes should start at 10…maybe 11…

"Yuuki, if you don't get up now, you'll be late for class again."

Yuuki was comfortably lying on her stomach, her head turned to the right. She only had to crack open one eye to see Yori sitting on her bed, already tying the red ribbon on her school uniform.

"No I won't," mumbled Yuuki into her pillow. "I'm canceling all classes for today."

"I wish you could but I believe that's outside your competence," smiled Yori.

"I'm changing the rules then," sighed Yuuki and she pushed herself up from her bed. Only to hiss in pain and burry her head back in the pillow. "Ow," and her right hand grabbed the back of her neck.

"Yuuki? Something wrong?"

"Yeah, my neck's all stiff and painful," said Yuuki, slowly sitting up on her bed. "I can't move it – ouch! – to the right."

"Oh, I hate it when that happens to me. That's what happens when you sleep in a bad position for too long."

"I know. I was too tired to care how twisted my neck was…"

"You came awfully late yesterday. Guarding the grounds is a tough job, isn't it."

At that Yuuki snorted. "Especially when Aidou-sempai gets bored and decides to fool around the place for a little bit of entertainment. Tag was never one of my favorite games," she sighed. "It only ended when Zero finally decided to show up to do his job…"

"I see your nights are quite eventful, poor Yuuki," Yori smiled again and stood up. "Get dressed quickly. I'll save you a chocolate muffin."

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Mornings always come too early. That's a fact. By why are classes so boring and endless?

"Is it just me, or is the lesson extremely long today?" whispered Yuuki, leaning a bit to the right in her seat, so that Yori could hear her better.

"It's not just you," said Yori, looking at her watch. "The bell didn't go off."

"What?" said Yuuki, turning her whole body to look at Yori, since she still couldn't move her neck.

"It should have gone off six minutes ago. I don't know what's wrong."

"The bells are being checked today," said a deep voice from behind them. "Looks like the chairman forgot to inform the teachers."

"And how do you know that, Zero?" Asked Yuuki surprised, turning her back to the teacher completely, in order to look at Zero.

"Your father mentioned it over dinner yesterday."

Yuuki's brows went up. "Did he?" And she looked off into space, as if trying to remember hearing about it.

"Cross Yuuki! Whatever you're discussing can wait after class!" bellowed the teacher suddenly, making Yuuki jump and hurt her neck with the speed of her turning back around.

"It already is after class, Ishido-sensei. The bell just didn't signal the end of the lesson. It's out of order today," said Zero in a bored voice, supporting his head on his hand.

The teacher blinked a few times and then looked at his watch. "Why was I not informed? Class dismissed."

And all of a sudden, the classroom got filled with pleasant chatter. Yori arranged her books and said: "I'll see you around, Yuuki," and she left.

Yuuki only "hmm"ed as an answer and rubbed her sore neck.

After most of the high-pitch-voiced girls left to await the Night-class students' parade, Yuuki started to collect her things too.

"Hey, you ok?"

Yuuki turned around to see Zero waiting for her in the aisle, hands in his pockets and with a worried expression on his pale face. "You look like you're in pain. You keep on grabbing at your neck the whole day. It's not where I…is it…" his voice died down.

Realization dawned on Yuuki and she hurriedly answered: "No! No, this is nothing. It's just a little stiff. I must have slept with my head in a strange angle or something. Please, don't worry about it." Then she quietly added with a shy smile: "Yours - yours was the other side anyway," and she covered the nearly healed bite marks with her left hand.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Yuuki quickly looked up: "Well! Gotta keep those fan girls at bay, right? Let's go, Zero!" And she pulled on his hand to follow her.

All Zero could think about was how extraordinary a person Yuuki was…

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

The loud high-pitched screech of Yuuki's whistle carried over the crowd of students, which gathered every day in front of the gate, that lead to the Moon dorms.

"All right, everyone! Make way, make way! Get in line, please!" But no matter how much she shouted, they just wouldn't listen. "The night class students will be arriving soon, so could you all please make room for them to pass?" But the girls just wouldn't budge. "Please! Could you all-"

"Move now, or I'll make you run," said Zero in a deep feral but loud voice, his half of fan girls already in a neat line. The other half that Yuuki was supposed to pacify instantly took a few steps back and threw ugly glares in Zero's direction.

"_If he keeps this up, there won't be a person in the Sun dorms left who would be surprised to hear that Zero is actually a ruthless vampire,"_ thought Yuuki, shaking her head.

Suddenly they heard the large gate creak as it was being opened and they were met with the sight of all the inhabitants of the Moon dorm.

Yuuki quickly pulled herself out of a trance that she fell into and took her place in front of the group of girls, her back to the Night class students, arms extended sideways.

The happy chatter, screams, all the 'ooh's and 'aw's were back as usual, with the arrival of the Night class. Aidou was taking his sweet time flashing bright smiles in all directions, making some girls swoon with the impact of his attractiveness.

Meanwhile, Yuuki was having hard time keeping all the fans in line. _"Gosh, I wish I could have the power to scare people with just one look. I could definitely use it right now," _thought Yuuki, desperately trying to push all the girls back.

Unfortunately, she had no such luck. Suddenly she found herself falling backwards, completely loosing her balance. She had no time to do anything but await the hard impact with the unmerciful ground. So she closed her eyes and waited…

…and waited…

…and waited a little more, until she realized that no hard impact occurred and that everything went strangely quiet.

Slowly, she opened her eyes which were filled with confusion and was met with many shocked and angry facial expressions of her classmates, which were looking down at her. _"What the…"_

"Yuuki, are you alright?" said a low gentle and oh so familiar voice, right next to her right ear.

She stiffened and looked down to see two strong arms, dressed in white school uniform sleeves, safely wrapped around her. Realization dawned on her and she quickly scrambled to her feet.

"Kaname-sama! I'm so sorry," she started apologizing, bowing low in the process. "I didn't mean to. I must have lost my footing and then I started to-"

A low chuckle was heard and then: "Enough."

Yuuki stopped immediately. She lifted her head to see Kaname, still sitting on the ground, looking at her through some strands of his hair that fell over his eyes.

Yuuki didn't know what to do. Slowly, she straightened her back. Should she help him up?

But before she could make up her mind, Kaname elegantly stood up. He put one hand under her chin and lifted her face up. She saw him smiling down at her. "A simple 'thank you' would have sufficed, Yuuki." And he pushed back a strand of hair behind her ear.

All that Yuuki did was stand there, with her lips slightly parted, stunned and speechless.

Kaname slowly traced his fingers from behind her ear along her jaw and then he let his hand fall to his side. "Be more careful, Yuuki," and with a gentle smile on his lips, he left.

When Yuuki finally came back down to Earth, all of the Night class students were already gone, leaving behind an awfully uncomfortable silence. She looked around only to see all the girls glaring daggers at her. Suddenly a girl with long hair stepped out of the line and stood before Yuuki with her arms akimbo. She pointed an accusing finger at her and said: "Cross Yuuki! This will not be tolerated!"

Yuuki looked taken aback. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said in a small voice, putting her hands behind her back.

"You know very well what I'm speaking of!"

Yuuki didn't know how to get out of this embarrassing situation. But luckily, it was decided for her. She felt her hand being grabbed and she found herself being pulled away from the crowd of crazy fuming Day class girls, by Zero. And they left without a word.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Kaname was standing by one of the tall windows of the classroom. He had no desire to study that night. For once, he just couldn't care less for any books of knowledge. For he was greatly distracted.

The object of his most current thoughts was standing on the huge terrace which was on the other side of the window. Yuuki was looking off into distance, probably trying to see if there weren't any Day class students in sight. Her hair and skirt fluttered in the soft breeze, making her look supernaturally beautiful.

Kaname couldn't take his eyes off her. She was so breathtaking…so innocent…

"Kaname-sama, are you well?" suddenly asked Ichijou, startling him a little.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

"You don't seem like yourself today. Is something the matter?"

"No," answered Kaname, turning his head to look out of the window once again. "Nothing's wrong."

Ichijou looked out of the window too and when he saw Yuuki standing there, he simply nodded his head and left.

Shortly after that, Yuuki stretched her back, with her hands reaching for the night sky. But when she tried to stretch her neck, she winced and put her hand over it. And that caught Kaname's attention. _"Did she hurt herself earlier?"_ he wondered and watched her jump over the stone railing.

"_Yuuki…"_

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

"I told you a hundred times. It is forbidden to go sneaking around the school grounds at night. Please, return to your dorm, immediately."

"We're not sneaking around, we just went for a walk!"

"Right. And you took your cameras with you by accident."

"You're one to talk, Cross Yuuki! You get to spend all the time you want with the Night class students! And it's not fair! What difference will a couple photos make, anyway?"

Yuuki sighed. These two girls were being especially difficult. "It is against the school rules."

"Well, I hate these rules!"

"Hate whatever you want, I don't really care. But as for this situation, you have two options: either you'll return to your rooms immediately, or I'll confiscate your cameras and I'll be forced to report this to the Chairman."

"Yeah, sure. Run to your daddy. Isn't that the reason why you were made a prefect in the first place? Privileged kid." And with that, they both turned their backs on Yuuki and left.

When they were finally out of her sight, she sighed again and leaned against one of the many trees that surrounded her. _"They have no idea..."_

"They always give you a hard time, don't they?"

Yuuki quickly jumped away from the tree and turned around to see the handsome pureblood coming her way.

"Kaname-sama! What are you doing out here? A-Aren't you supposed to be in class right now? I-I mean, aren't you needed in-"

"I dismissed the class early tonight. There was no reason for me to stay there."

"Oh," was the only smart reply that Yuuki could come up with. Kaname's presence was usually so overwhelming that she always ended up with no coherent words in her brain. _"But it wasn't always like that,"_ she thought.

"That fall, earlier today," Yuuki visibly jumped because she didn't realize that Kaname stood right in front of her, until he spoke, "did you hurt yourself?"

"N-No, I didn't. And I want to thank you for breaking my fall," said Yuuki quietly, bowing low before him again.

"Then tell me, Yuuki, why are you in pain?"

"Huh?" Came another smart reply and she straightened her back again.

She must have had a strange confused look on her face, because Kaname chuckled softly and said: "Your neck, Yuuki, it hurts, doesn't it?"

"Oh! No, I mean, yes. Well, I mean yes, it does hurt. But no, it's not a consequence of the fall. It's been all stiff and painful since morning, I must have slept with my head in an unnatural angle, that's all," said Yuuki, smiling up at Kaname almost in an apologetic way.

Kaname's brows furrowed. "But it is causing you pain."

"Only a little, there's nothing to worry about."

"But I don't want to see you hurting, Yuuki. Let me take the pain away," he said and took a step closer to Yuuki.

As a reaction, Yuuki took a step back and held her hands up in front of her. "No, please don't bother yourself. Like I said, It's fine-"

Yuuki didn't even have time to blink. Suddenly Kaname disappeared from where he was standing and then reappeared right behind her, holding her by her shoulders in place.

"It is not fine when my precious girl is being bothered by pain of any kind," he breathed into her ear. Yuuki shivered and goose bumps covered her arms beneath her school uniform.

Kaname nudged her hair away with his nose, to gain better access to the right side of her neck.

"Kaname…sama…what…"

And she gasped. When Kaname's lips made contact with her skin, she felt strange warmth flowing through her. It was pleasant and calming, yet it gave her the chills. Her eyes fluttered shut. She was sure that if she were to look behind her, she would find a strange purple hue surrounding the skin of her neck. Kaname was using the same power that he used on her scratched elbow before.

She felt his hands tightening their grip on her arms as that wonderful feeling slowly vanished. Only Kaname didn't remove his lips from her skin that quickly. She felt his butterfly kisses along the side of her neck, soothing, calming, making her feel strangely safe in his arms. But when he traced his warm tongue along the length of her neck, her eyes flew wide open. Suddenly the reality came back to her. And she realized the danger that she was in.

"Kaname?"

But he didn't show any signs of stopping. He didn't want to stop. He liked, no, loved the taste of her skin. He felt her rapid heartbeat beneath his tongue. Her sweet smelling blood was flowing just beneath the surface of her skin. It was addicting. And he denied himself for so long…

When Yuuki felt his fangs gently scrape her skin, she gasped. She knew very well what it would mean to get bitten by Kuran Kaname, the pureblood, a vampire among vampires…

Suddenly she heard the clinking of a metal chain.

"It's strictly forbidden to drink blood on the school grounds, Kuran."

"_Zero!"_ Yuuki quickly spun around to see a very angry Zero holding his Bloody Rose gun against Kaname's head. "Zero! Put that away, right now!"

"I didn't think you'd stoop so low as to break the laws of this school," said Zero, completely ignoring Yuuki.

Kaname only chuckled: "You're in no position to talk, Kiryuu. Don't think that I don't know," he said with his eyes closed.

At this, Zero's gaze hardened.

"Zero! Stop that!" shouted Yuuki and she tried to pull on his arm. "Kaname-sempai was only trying to help me with the pain I felt all day! And it's gone, see?" And she shook her head from side to side to emphasize her words. "Please, put that down!"

Zero's gaze never left Kaname, who was still patiently waiting with his eyes closed. After a few seconds of silence, Zero finally lowered the gun and took a step back, Yuuki still clinging to his arm.

Kaname smiled a little, with his back still turned to them, and without sending a look in their direction, he walked off. "Take care, Yuuki." And in the darkness beneath the trees, his eyes shone bright red.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

A/N: This idea came to my head when I had the same problem as Yuuki had in this chapter. Don't you all just hate to get up with your neck immobile? It's a real pain in the…neck…

See you in the next chapter…

Matylda


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Please enjoy the second chapter of Bloody nurse.

"talking"

"_thinking"_

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Bloody nurse**

**Chapter 2**

Yuuki always thought she was a decisive person. When she made a decision, she would follow it through, no matter what. But the real trouble began when she couldn't decide on something. That sort of a personal inner struggle always made her uneasy.

So when she was lying in bed in the middle of the night, kept awake with her own incapability of making the right decision, she was angry with herself.

Listening to Yori's quiet snores, Yuuki replayed over and over what happened that evening. It all seemed very far away to her. Like a dream. Was it just a dream?

Yuuki rolled her head around the pillow, testing. No, the pain was definitely gone. And the place where Kaname's lips made contact with her skin still tingled a bit, when she remembered it.

But what made her angry was the fact that she couldn't decide whether to be thankful to Zero, for interrupting their…encounter, or rather to be cross with him.

Yuuki smiled wryly: _"Cross Yuuki is being cross with __Kiryuu__ Zero at the Cross academy. Good headlines."_

But seriously, what was wrong with her? She felt Kaname's fangs on her neck. FANGS. ON HER NECK. And here she was, filled with curiosity as to where that would've led them, what would've happened, what it would've felt like…IF Zero hadn't butted in? Was she crazy?

She pulled the pillow from underneath her head and placed it over her face instead.

She should be kissing the ground Zero walks on. Yet she couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.

But Kaname didn't seem like he totally lost control, right? He talked normally, he laughed, he didn't lash out or anything… maybe he was just as disappointed as she was because their moment alone together ended too quickly…and rudely.

She should've thanked him at least…

"_Oh my God, I didn't thank him!" _screamed Yuuki inside of her head. _"Now I look like an ungrateful moron!"_

Yuuki ripped the pillow away from her face. She took a deep breath and crossed her arms over her chest. _"Stupid Zero! I am so cross with you!"_

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

The next morning, Yuuki woke up to an empty room. _"Yori must have already left."_ She checked the time and sighed. _"Huh, I knew I'd be late for class today. Of all the nights as a guardian, this one was the worst. Usually I'm so tired I sprawl on my bed and fall asleep right away. But I just kept on thinking-"_

Suddenly, someone banged on the door violently, twice. Yuuki visibly jumped.

"Yuuki! Get your lazy butt out of that bed! The class has already begun." It was Zero.

Zero. Yuuki blinked. It was Zero. And then she remembered that she was angry with him.

She grabbed the closest thing her hand reached and threw it against the door.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Zero only flinched as something shattered against the door. His eyebrows rose in surprise a little. He knew Yuuki hated mornings, but violence?

"Go away! I don't need you! I know what time it is!" shouted Yuuki but it sounded muffled through the door.

"You know, you really shouldn't skip any more classes, your grades aren't really top of the class," said Zero, leaning against the frame of the door.

"No, they're not! You're at the top of the class, so go and be the know-it-all and leave me alone!"

Zero sighed. It was another one of those days… "I'm coming in. Be decent," and he grabbed the door handle and pushed the door open. Something went flying across the room aiming for his head but he caught it easily. "If you're trying to endanger my life, try hitting me with something harder than a pillow next time."

"I would, but my alarm clock is scattered on the floor," said Yuuki, waving at Zero's feet.

"Well, what a waste," said Zero, closing the door behind him, looking it over quickly. "Not even a dent in the wood."

Yuuki crossed her arms over her light-yellow-clad chest and frowned. "What do you want?"

Zero mirrored her posture. "I want to get you to class." He watched her frowning face for a few seconds and then he added: "And I wanted to make sure you're ok."

That knocked Yuuki off balance. Her frown morphed into a look of confusion. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Zero, seeing he might be able to talk to her after all, leaned against the door with his back and braced one foot against it. "You seemed sort of…distant, yesterday…after… Well, I wanted to make sure HE didn't do anything to you…since you didn't come to class…" and he trailed off.

Yuuki blinked a few times and then she recovered. "Um, no, I just slept in. That's pretty common for me, right?"

Zero watched her innocent expression for just a moment. "Right." He pushed himself from the door and opened it.

"Wait, Zero." He paused. "I um, thank you for yesterday. I appreciate it, I do. It's just that Kaname-sempai would never do anything that would hurt me. You know that as well as I do," said Yuuki, staring at the ground.

"_I know. He's not like me. But he seemed somehow…different, yesterday…" _thought Zero_. _"Get dressed and hurry." And with that, he left.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Yuuki was feeling anxious. She had no real reason to, really, but still she couldn't help it but feel on edge. Nervous. She pushed away the urge to bite her nails. So she bit her lip instead. And tapped her foot.

She was spacing out. Some part of her brain told her that much. But she just couldn't bring herself back to reality. She knew she had duties. Her ears partly registered the awful shrieks of her fellow classmates, which she was supposed to…pacify.

But the thought of meeting Kaname-sama again after yesterday's event seemed scary to her. Or more like – embarrassing. She knew she had to thank him but what could she say? Thanks for the lip work? Honestly. She was at a loss of words even without his mind-stopping, tongue-tying presence.

Yuuki sighed. She was doomed.

All of a sudden the screaming around her got louder, successfully waking her up from her reverie. The gate of the Moon dorms opened.

She quickly jerked away from the beautiful faces of the Night class and began her duty. With all the girls trying to push by her, she kept on repeating "don't fall down, don't fall down" in her head, like a mantra. She really didn't want to repeat yesterday's incident.

But all too soon, curiosity got the better of her and she turned her head around to see if Kaname-sama was going to pass anywhere near her. Only to be met with a few death glares from the Night-class students, Aidou-sempai included. Yuuki quickly turned her head back around, wondering what was that all about.

Few seconds passed and she realized that nearly all the Moon dorms' inhabitants were already halfway to the school building. Kaname-sama hadn't stopped to greet her like usual. That was very uncharacteristic of him. Yuuki craned her neck after them, in order to catch at least a glimpse of him, but she couldn't locate him in the mass of people…well, vampires actually.

She couldn't suppress the disappointment that crept onto her. After all, he was free to do as he pleased. But then dread caught up with her. What if he never wanted to speak to her again? What if she made a bad impression? What if he was repulsed by her? Her heart started to beat faster. She knew what she had to do.

She needed to speak to him alone. To thank him properly, without interruptions.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Yuuki tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. She pretended to look around the grounds from the first floor balcony, which was situated right next to the classroom, which was currently occupied by the Night class.

After a while she braced herself on the wall, right next to a high window. She took a deep breath and took a quick peek through the glass, to see if there was anyone in close proximity to the window, who could possibly catch her sneaking around. Luckily for her, there wasn't.

The second time, she peeked a bit longer. She got a good look around the class. Her eyes roamed over every single vampire in the classroom. But the most important one was missing.

"Spying on the bloodsuckers?"

Yuuki squeaked and spun around. Zero was leaning against the stone railing, watching her with amusement.

"Zero! You scared me! Don't creep up on me like that," said Yuuki, holding a hand over her heart.

"He's not there tonight, your hero," said Zero in a bored voice, looking away from her to the side.

"How do you know that?"

"He wasn't in the parade today, either."

"And do you, um, know where he is?"

"Nope."

Yuuki walked over next to Zero and put her hands on the railing. "I wonder what happened. The Night classes are usually canceled if Kaname-sempai cannot join them."

"I have a hunch," said Zero still in that bored voice.

Yuuki turned her face to him quickly with expectations in her eyes.

"But I'm not telling you."

Yuuki frowned. "Why not?"

Zero smiled crookedly at her. "Cause it's all vampire stuff."

"I can handle vampires, you know I can."

"True," said Zero in a somewhat sad voice. "But I don't want you to handle it this time. It might be more than you bargained for."

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

For the next 3 days, Yuuki didn't see Kaname at all. And the Night classes never ceased to continue. It was very strange. She had this nagging feeling that something wasn't right.

And the hostile stares of the Moon dorms' inhabitants never stopped either. It just felt wrong.

On the fourth day of Kaname's disappearance, Yuuki decided to get some answers. She waited until the Night class parade neared the school building and she caught up with those who were last to enter, Aidou and Kain.

"Aidou-sempai! Please, wait!"

Aidou stopped in the door, holding it opened. He turned around to face her, his electric blue eyes especially cold at that moment. He didn't say anything, only stared down at her. That made Yuuki nervous.

"Um, sorry to bother you, I don't mean to steal time from you…"

"What do you want?" said Aidou icily. Yuuki could almost feel the air around her getting colder.

"Well, I've noticed that Kaname-sempai has been away for some days," began Yuuki, noticing that Aidou's eyes went even colder at the mentioning of his leaders name. "And I wanted to ask you if everything's ok. Or if I could help in any way."

Aidou narrowed his eyes at her. "We don't need any more of YOUR help." And with that, he shut the door closed in Yuuki's face.

Yuuki only stared at the door in disbelieve, her mouth hanging slightly opened. There. She had it. Whatever it was that was wrong, definitely was her fault. She didn't imagine the angry looks at all.

She turned around and began to walk back. In her mind, she ran over everything that happened that day and every day after that. But she ended up empty handed, just like every other time she tried to find the missing piece of the puzzle.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

After thinking everything through, for about 24 hours, Yuuki decided to ask the Chairman. He was the only person she didn't talk about it with. Well, not that she asked everyone in the Night class. Aidou's reaction was enough to tell her she won't be getting any answers there.

So the next day after dinner, when Zero left the kitchen and Yuuki stayed behind to help cleaning up after the meal, she suddenly asked: "Um, **dad**, can I ask you something?" She instantly had his attention, for which she was hoping for.

Her calling the Chairman dad, well, that would probably get her anywhere she wanted…

"Well of course Yuuki-chan! Anything, anything! Let's hear it!

Yuuki sweat-dropped. "It's nothing big, really. I was just wondering, do you know where Kaname-sempai has gone to? I haven't seen him in like…5 days or so…" No need to let the Chairman know the exact number of hours, right?

The Chairman passed her a washed plate for her to dry. "But he's never left, Yuuki. He called me a few days ago and said that he's not feeling well and he asked me if I had any objections to the night classes continuing without his attendance. I've asked him if it was anything serious and he assured me not to worry."

"So he's ill? I didn't know that vampires can be sick…"

"I told him the same thing. And he only laughed and made a joke not to worry, that it's not contagious," said the Chairman, chuckling as he handed Yuuki another plate.

Yuuki only bit her lip and absentmindedly rubbed the plate with a pink dishcloth that had kittens on it.

"Don't worry, Yuuki. I'm sure he'll be alright soon. He hasn't left his chambers since he called."

"Really? But how do you know that?"

"I had some papers that needed to be signed by Kaname and we used Ichijou as our messenger," he smiled. "So, naturally, I asked about Kaname a little and that's what I was told."

Yuuki nodded her head in understanding. But she felt like something really wasn't right. If Kaname-sama was simply ill, why would they all blame her for it?

She wasn't having any of that. Kaname-sama said it wasn't contagious, right? So there's no reason why she shouldn't go see him herself.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

A/N: edited on 27.1.2012

Take care,

Matylda


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Please enjoy.

"talking"

"_thinking"_

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Bloody nurse**

**Chapter 3**

Yuuki planned everything very carefully. She knew she had to avoid being seen by the other members of the Night class. They wouldn't let her set a foot into the Moon dorms, she was sure about that. If they caught her, they wouldn't hesitate to use force. She'd have to be sneaky about it.

The window was out of the question. Any exterior of the building was, for that matter. And no amount of her physical strength could ever match the strength of a vampire. Let alone a whole bunch. So she'd have to use only her brain in order to even get a chance of speaking to Kaname.

It didn't take her too long to come up with something that might work.

She waited one more day, Sunday, since she needed the Moon dorms to be empty. And for that, she needed a weekday. A day, or a night in this case, when all of the Night class students would be at school, distracted and away.

That single day was a torment. She couldn't work properly. She tried to mask all of her anxiety in front of the others. Zero especially. She didn't want him to be suspicious. If he knew what she was planning for her Monday night… she shuddered at the thought. Zero told her on Tuesday he didn't want her to meddle in the vampires' affairs this time. He made that clear.

So Monday night, after sneaking away from her usual night patrol, she found herself in front of the huge mahogany double door, which lead to the Moon dorms.

Yuuki took a deep breath. Her plan ended here. She had no idea what to tell Kaname, what to ask him… She'd have to improvise…or come up with something real quick.

She took another deep breath and very slowly opened the door, afraid that it would make a sound. She suddenly couldn't remember if it does creak or not. To her relief, it only made a small whiny noise.

She stuck her head into the foyer and checked if the coast was clear. She snuck in on her tiptoes and very carefully closed the huge door behind her. After she heard a tiny click of the lock, signaling that the door was completely closed, she leaned her forehead against it and breathed a sigh of relieve. _"So far so good."_

"Yuuki?"

And she froze. Her pulse raced. Why can't anything ever go the way she plans it?

Very slowly, she turned around with wide eyes and tense shoulders. And her eyes were met with a shocked expression on Ichijou's face.

He was standing in the middle of the stairs, one hand on the railing, one foot placed higher than the other. He looked as if he was frozen in place. He wasn't wearing the school uniform but a white shirt and beige trousers.

It seemed they were both shocked to see the other. Their lips slightly parted, eyes locked, the silence stretched on. At least he didn't seem furious like the others… _"Furious?"_

And suddenly, Yuuki had enough. She was in the dark about the whole situation far too long. They all blamed her for something she didn't do. But somehow, the shock on Ichijou's face was the last straw.

Yuuki frowned and pulled herself as high as possible. And with determination in her eyes, she spoke loud and clear: "Good evening, Ichijou-sempai."

It took Ichijou a moment to recover. But when he finally unfroze, he nodded his head and continued to go down the stair towards Yuuki. "Good evening to you, too."

Yuuki walked forward and waited at the foot of the stairs. "I came to see Kaname-sempai. Is he still here?"

Ichijou stopped on the last stair, his eyebrows raised. "Yes, he's here. But he's not feeling well tonight. Maybe some other night would be better for-"

But Yuuki didn't even let him finish. "So I've heard. But he's been ill the whole week and I really need to talk to him," said Yuuki and she walked around Ichijou. At least she tried.

The moment she put her foot on the first step, he was in front of her again, two steps higher. "You can't see him now, Yuuki. If it's something important, tell me instead and I'll deliver the message to him."

"No, it's confidential. It's for Kaname's ears only."

"Then write him a letter and I'll give it to him."

"No. I wouldn't know his response immediately."

"He'd write you a letter of his own right away. He writes uncomm-"

"I want to see him!" shouted Yuuki suddenly, her patience snapping in half. "I've had enough! He didn't come out of his chambers for a week and I want to know the reason behind it!"

"Yuuki, I told you, he's not-"

"Stop it! Save the lies for someone dumb enough to believe that a vampire, and a pureblood on top of that, could be ill!"

Ichijou only stared at her with a shocked expression again, rendered speechless.

"I want to know the truth! I'm sick of all the death glares the others send my way every time we meet! And Aidou-sempai made it very clear that I'm the one to blame for what's going on. If I've done something wrong, I want to fix it, so please let me!"

After that, she took a deep breath to calm herself. She looked at her feet for a while. When she looked back up at Ichijou, she felt relatively calm again.

"Please, Ichijou-sempai, please. Tell me what's really going on with Kaname-sempai. I'm, I'm worried about him. And I don't want him to hate me…" and she looked back down, pink flooding her cheeks.

The silence that fallowed was very uncomfortable. She felt very embarrassed for shouting at Ichijou like that. She all but threw her pent up anger from the past few days at him. And he was the first vampire this week (apart from Zero), who didn't glower and hiss at her no less. She could still hear her screaming ring around the spacious room. She felt horrible, not better. She realized again, with a painful tug at her heart, she was meddling in things, which were not of her world. A mere human, prying truths from a vampire. How grotesque.

"He doesn't hate you."

Yuuki looked back up with a sad face. "What?" she asked in a small voice.

"Kaname doesn't hate you, Yuuki," said Ichijou gently. "I don't think he'd ever be capable of that."

And he smiled at her gently, too.

Yuuki didn't know what to say to that. She opened her mouth and then closed it again. Now it was her who was speechless. Still it was a relief to hear that. After a few seconds, she said: "But the others…"

Ichijou sighed. "You have to understand one thing, Yuuki. We feel very protective of Kaname. He's our master, our leader. We're all very grateful to be able to remain so close to him. We all respect him. We would do anything he asked. His grieving is our grieving. His pain is ours too."

The whole time, Yuuki watched in wonder as Ichijou's eyes sparkled as he spoke of his lord.

"But the others are overreacting. I apologize in their place. It's not in their right to be so hostile towards you. It's not like you've done anything on purpose."

But that caught Yuuki's attention. "On purpose?" Yuuki's hand flew to her mouth. "So I really did something? It really is all my fault?" Yuuki's eyes were as wide as saucers. She truly believed, and hoped, that whatever went wrong, it couldn't have been her fault. But hearing it confirmed like that made her gasp in disbelieve.

"What did I do? What is it? Please, Ichijou-sempai, tell me! Can it be undone? Can I fix this?" Yuuki was so desperate for an answer that she went as far as grabbing Ichijou's forearms.

She was staring up at him, hope and dread filling her brown eyes.

Ichijou stayed very still, only his eyes roaming over Yuuki's face, as if he was trying to figure something out. She really looked like she'd do anything at that moment. And he doubted he'd be able to make her leave.

After about a minute, Ichijou hung his head and sighed. "He won't like this."

Yuuki didn't say anything. It seemed Ichijou was talking to himself now. She held her breath and waited.

When he looked back up, he was frowning. "Is this something you really want to do?"

"Help Kaname-sempai? Of course I do," said Yuuki, looking a bit offended at the question.

"Are you absolutely sure?"

Yuuki let go of his arms. "Yes."

Ichijou sighed again. "Well then, follow me," he said, turned around and began walking up the stairs again.

Yuuki quickly threw of the shock from the sudden change in his behavior and caught up with him.

"It's not like I didn't try…"muttered Ichijou to himself.

After another two flights of steps Ichijou turned his head to look at her: "Just so you know, I'll be in big trouble for this." And then he smiled: "But I hope it won't be for nothing."

He stayed silent the rest of the way.

But when they finally reached the corridor at which's end Yuuki knew Kaname's chambers were, Ichijou suddenly stopped and turned on her: "Yuuki," he all but whispered. "Be very careful. I'm warning you now. Kaname-sama is a little…well, he's not himself." And he stared meaningfully into Yuuki's eyes.

Yuuki was taken aback by his true concern for her wellbeing. She stammered: "I-I'll do what I can."

Ichijou nodded and walked briskly towards the double-door to Kaname's chambers. Yuuki followed.

He stopped in front of the door and took a deep breath. He knocked twice, making nearly no sound at all. "Kaname-sama, I'm very sorry to disturb," he said in a voice as if he was speaking to someone right next to him. "Somebody came to see you and claims it's urgent."

He remained silent for a while after that.

"Yes," he suddenly said and Yuuki realized that Kaname was probably speaking on the other side of the door but only she couldn't hear him with her feeble human hearing.

"Yes, you did." Again an answer, no doubt.

"No, Kaname-sama, I know the state of things but-" Apparently, Kaname cut him off.

"I'm very sorry, but she insisted-" suddenly Ichijou gasped as something tore through the sleeve of his white shirt and he grabbed his upper arm. Yuuki gasped too as she could see blood seeping through the shirt under his fingers, turning it dark red.

"Yes, Kaname-sama," said Ichijou in a painless voice and he looked back at Yuuki. "He'll see you now."

Yuuki was looking and back and forth between Ichijou's face and the wound. But he didn't show any signs of explanation, nor pain. She took a tentative step to the door and grabbed the handle. She turned her head to look at Ichijou one more time: "Thank you," she said in a small apologetic voice.

He only nodded again and regarded her with a sad expression.

Yuuki turned back to the door and pushed the handle down, to let herself in.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

A/N: Hope you liked it at least a bit…

Take care,

Matylda


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Please enjoy probably the most wanted chapter yet – how Yuuki finally meets Kaname...

"talking"

"_thinking"_

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Bloody nurse**

**Chapter 4**

Yuuki's heart rate accelerated. She felt like her heart was placed inside her head. It was rapidly beating against her eardrums. And sudden waves of shivers ran down her spine.

The moment she opened the door, she felt for the first time that her visit might not be such a great idea. She wanted to help Kaname very much. But the feeling of this once familiar room was suddenly ominous. Danger, it screamed at her. But she dismissed that thought. This was Kaname-sama's room after all…

Yuuki was leaning against the door through which she came in, her hands behind her back. She was waiting for her eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness of the room. No lights were on, no candle was lit and even though the curtains were drawn apart, hanging helplessly by the windows, not much light was coming through the glass. Clouds were blocking out the moonlight.

The air in the room felt heavy, as if no one opened the windows for a long time. There was also a strange smell in the air but Yuuki couldn't tell what it was.

Everything was completely still and quiet…except for Yuuki's heart…

The silence felt uncomfortable. All of her resolve from before was gone. She had no idea what to say, how to begin. She even felt the beginning of fear creeping up on her. She has never seen Ichijou getting punished by Kaname before. And the way he has submitted himself to the punishment, with such calm. As if he knew it was coming. As if he thought he deserved it… Yuuki swallowed with difficulty when she realized that Kaname being angry and Ichijou getting hurt was all her fault.

Her fault…yes, that's why she was there. She wanted to undo her mistake. Whatever it was that she did wrong.

She squinted in the general direction of Kaname's sofa, where it always stood. She could only make out its silhouette against the faint light coming through the window behind it. She imagined Kaname lying there on his back. She could feel that he was somewhere close to her…

It was clear that he won't start any conversation. He had no desire to talk to anyone after all. So Yuuki gathered all of her courage she had left and took a deep but shaky breath.

"Good evening, Kaname-sempai," said Yuuki quietly. She was sure he'd have no trouble hearing her.

Everything was still and Kaname remained silent.

So it was going to be a monolog, then…

Yuuki desperately looked around the pitch black room for some kind of inspiration. Of course the darkness didn't help her. That was exactly how she felt: in the dark about so many things…

"Um," she began uneasily. "Well, first of all, I'd like to say how – how I appreciate that you've decided to see me. I don't mean to pry or anything, it's just that I – I was worried. I couldn't help but notice that your absence began right after our…our encounter on Monday. And the other members of the Night class made me feel that I was responsible for-"

"Are you afraid, Yuuki?"

Kaname's sudden low and even voice made Yuuki gasp quietly. She didn't expect him to interrupt her. She didn't expect him to speak at all.

"Are you scared of me now?"

Yuuki assumed correctly his position on the sofa. His voice was coming directly from it. After a few seconds, she realized that he was probably waiting for a reply to those strange questions.

"N-No, I'm not," she answered, taken aback.

"Then tell me, why does your heart sound like the wings of a hummingbird?"

Yuuki didn't have an answer to that. She wasn't entirely sure herself.

After a short pause, Kaname continued: "Is it because I tore through Ichijou's shoulder?"

Yuuki's breath hitched after that. The way he said it, with amusement in his tone… Kaname never felt amused by inflicting pain on anyone. Let alone one of his friends.

"But I had every right to do that, Yuuki. I gave an order. He didn't obey." He was speaking in a very cold tone. "Of course, it is partly your fault as well, persuading him to disobey me."

Yuuki suddenly dreaded the outcome of this conversation. Ichijou was right. The man in front of her was not himself. If he decided to punish her too, there would be no way of stopping it. She wanted to say something. She wanted to defend Ichijou and herself. She wanted to apologize, thank him again and leave. She wanted to say something. Anything. But her lips wouldn't form any words. And she was also afraid that interrupting him might not be such a good idea either.

"You have that effect on those around you, Yuuki. When you unleash the power of your eyes on someone, they can hardly resist you. And when your eyes fill with tears…so cruel of you, Yuuki."

Yuuki audibly gulped. There was something in his tone that she's never heard before. Like the calm before the storm, something sinister lurking in the dark.

"And you sneaking away to see me… did you think that my rules don't apply to you?"

Before Yuuki could even take a breath, he answered his own question: "Especially to you, dear Yuuki. Yet you are the one who breaks them the most."

And at that moment, the clouds covering the moon moved and Yuuki could see her surroundings for the first time that night. Kaname was indeed lying on the sofa, one leg bent at the knee and one arm over his eyes, his feet bare, wearing black pants and a black silken long-sleeved shirt, all the buttons, except for one in the middle, undone. Empty wine glasses were strewn around him on the floor, also covering the surface of the coffee table beside the sofa. There were many dark stains on the carpet too but Yuuki didn't want to think about those.

She lifted her gaze back up and concentrated on Kaname. It was still dark in the room but she could see better. Yet Kaname remained in the darkest place – in the shadow of the sofa's backrest.

"Come here, Yuuki," he suddenly said. She didn't even see his lips move.

As petrified as she was, she didn't dare to disobey this time. Everything was screaming at her to stay away but she found herself moving away from the door anyway.

She gingerly made her way through the glasses, stepping over the dark stains in the carpet. She stopped right in front of the sofa, looking down at Kaname, waiting for him to say something.

He turned his head slightly in her direction, keeping his arm over his eyes. "Am I truly that frightening to you, Yuuki?" he said in a pained voice.

That shocked Yuuki. He spoke so differently. His voice nearly cracked with emotion and she could hear his pain and strain through it. She realized that whatever was wrong, it was causing him pain. And suddenly, she was overcome with urge to comfort him.

She moved closer to him, kneeling on the floor, closer to where his head was resting on the armrest. She lifted her hand and gently placed it over his, which was lying idly by his side.

"You're not frightening me, Kaname-sama," whispered Yuuki.

Kaname sighed. And at that moment, the clouds moved back over the moon, covering the room in darkness again.

Yuuki couldn't see anything. She kept her eyes on the spot where Kaname's face was just a few seconds before.

"Well," he began and Yuuki heard the soft rustle of silk against silk. "I should." And he opened his eyes.

All that Yuuki saw where two blood red half-lidded eyes staring back at her in the darkness.

Yuuki yelped and quickly got to her feet. She stumbled backwards, knocking some of the empty glasses over in the process. She kept her eyes locked with his, being able to see nothing else.

Kaname sat up. She could tell by the rustle of fabric and the way his eyes moved higher and more to the center of the sofa.

Yuuki's heart was beating against her eardrums again.

After about a minute of this staring contest, while the only sound in the room was Yuuki's painfully beating heart, Kaname stood up and began to slowly walk towards her. For every step he took, Yuuki took one step back. She could only see his tall silhouette and those eyes.

Yuuki racked her brains, looking for something that might distract him…or at least make him talk again.

Inspiration came quickly. With one of his steps, Kaname crushed one of the glasses under his foot. It seemed he didn't even notice.

"K-Kaname-sama, did the blood tablets stop working?" she squeaked out, not being able to control her voice at that moment.

As an answer, Kaname only tilted his head to the side.

"I-Is that the problem? The tablets don't work?" Yuuki wanted him to say something. She didn't know why but she wanted to hear his voice.

But he still didn't answer.

So she tried again: "But the others, Ichijou-sempai, Aidou-sempai, Kain-sempai, they all seemed perfectly fine. Ah!" and her back hit something solid. She felt around with her hands and found out that she hit the door. She was trapped.

Kaname took the few remaining steps and stood right in front of her. Yuuki had to lean her head back to be able to look into his eyes. They still were that deep shade of red. Quite similar to Zero's when he was hungry for blood.

Yuuki gulped again. And that brought Kaname's attention to her throat.

Yuuki's eyes widened as he slowly lowered his face to the same level as hers.

"The tablets…won't work on me," he said almost lazily, bending his head to the right side of her neck. He touched his nose to her skin there and inhaled deeply. He held the air in for a few seconds and then let it out through his mouth, making Yuuki shiver delicately.

And then he moaned against the side of her neck.

Yuuki only stared off into the darkness, her eyes wide, her breathing uneven. She never heard him moan before. The sound seemed so vulnerable.

She felt him place his hands against the door, caging her in.

"Nothing works on me now," he said in a deep rumbling voice, right into her ear. "No amount of Ruka's, Aidou's or Ichijou's blood helped me from my agony."

Yuuki flinched at that last word.

"The taste of their blood revolting on my tongue, rising like bile in my throat…"

He pressed his lips to the pulse on her neck and Yuuki heard a quiet _click_ as the door locked itself.

"Your blood would be the only relief from my suffering…" and he ran his tongue along the length of the side of her neck.

There. Yuuki had her answers. That's why it was her fault that Kaname suffered. That's why they all hated her. She was unconsciously causing him pain. For a moment, she was actually relieved to finally know the truth. But then she realized what situation she was in. Same like last Monday. Kaname's lips on her pulse, she rooted to the spot. Only this time Zero won't be coming to her rescue. _"Zero,"_ she thought with regret. Zero told her before: he didn't want the same fate for her, too…

But what other choice did she have? She wanted to save Kaname. She owed him her life for saving her ten years ago… No, he OWNED her life. Whatever he demanded, she would gladly give him.

Kaname took his right hand off the door where it rested and he started to play with a strand of Yuuki's hair. By then, Yuuki was decided.

She took that hand in hers and gently kissed his knuckles.

Kaname froze, his lips going still on her skin.

Yuuki pressed one more kiss to the last knuckle and she turned his hand over, kissing his palm once. And she waited.

When Kaname got over the shock of her actions, he slowly placed that hand over her left cheek.

Yuuki covered his hand with hers and leaned into the touch, her eyes closing in the process. That small movement exposed her neck further and she heard a small whimper escape Kaname's lips.

That was her way of surrendering…and apparently, Kaname knew that, too…

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

A/N: Bringing out Kaname's animalistic side is fun!

Take care,

Matylda


	5. Chapter 5

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Bloody nurse**

**Chapter 5**

Yuuki felt like her whole life was leading up to this moment. The time came for her to finally be able to pay back for her current life. She'd surrender, no matter what he did...

She tightened her hold on Kaname's hand and grabbed his wrist with her other hand. She didn't want him to pull away.

She buried the side of her face deeper into his strangely cool palm. It actually felt quite soothing. Yuuki wanted to distract herself from the pain that would come when Kaname finally sank his fangs into her neck. She knew what it felt like to have your blood sucked out of you. She had plenty of practice with that...

But she had no idea what to expect from a pure blooded vampire. Yuuki tried to imagine a different kind of pain. She tried to picture a certain type of venom spreading through her system. Or would she simply drift off into unconsciousness?

While thinking about these things, Yuuki didn't even notice Kaname ceasing all his actions. He pulled his face away from the collar of her shirt and studied her serene face, with his still blood-red eyes.

"Yuuki…"

Nothing. Yuuki didn't even realize he wanted her attention.

"Yuuki, look at me," he said a bit more firmly.

Yuuki slowly opened her eyes, almost reluctantly. She was decided, what else did he want? Confirmation? Some papers signed, perhaps?

She looked up at Kaname's face, gasping as she once again saw those blood red eyes of his, not being used to seeing them on his usually calm, gentle face.

His gaze was searching for something but what, she didn't know.

"Kaname…sama?" she asked in a timid voice.

Kaname ran the thumb of his right hand over Yuuki's cheek and slowly shook his head. His face was sat in a deep scowl, his voice sounded deeper than usual.

"Your blood, Yuuki, it's calling me. It's luring me in. It makes me insane, irrational…" he trailed off and closed his eyes for a brief moment, as if praying for patience. When he opened them again, he continued.

"I was glad that Kiryuu stopped me back then. I lost control at that time… I lost control," he took a deep breath and growled out, "just like I'm losing it now."

Kaname's breathing became labored and his hand, which was still against Yuuki's face, was shaking. His eyes became unfocused and his fangs lengthened.

Yuuki only watched in wonder, as he lowered his head to her neck again, sliding his hand from her cheek down to the other side of her throat, and his left hand ended up on her waist, massaging her skin through her uniform.

Yuuki closed her eyes and parted her lips slightly, as this strange yet wonderful feeling filled her chest. Her heart sped up again, causing her blood to travel faster through her veins.

Kaname noticed this really quickly. He growled into her neck and Yuuki shivered involuntarily. He parted his lips and pressed them to her heated skin, drawing her closer with both of his hands.

Yuuki tilted her head slightly to give him better access, but that small movement caused him to whimper and pull his head away quickly.

"Why aren't you fighting, Yuuki," he whined, his face scrunched up in pain. "Why aren't you pushing me away, fighting for your human life…"

And at that moment, the clouds moved and made way for the moonlight again.

Yuuki's never seen him in such agony before. He was torn between his lust for her blood and his want to protect her.

The sight brought tears to her eyes. She loved this man before her ever since she was but a child. And now she was the cause of his suffering.

That had to end. No turning back now.

"Kaname-sama, please. Don't torture yourself like that."

Kaname started to shake his head again, his eyes closed.

"Please, I'm not fighting against this. I won't. And you should do the same," said Yuuki in the most gentle voice she could manage.

"No," whined Kaname, shaking his head fiercely.

"Yes," she whispered and took Kaname's face between her hands.

"No, Yuuki, you don't know what you're saying."

"I know exactly what this means, Kaname-sama. I'm aware of the consequences. But I don't care. I want you to- "

"No!" he suddenly exclaimed, pushing Yuuki's back into the wood of the door, almost painfully. Yuuki grabbed fistfuls of his silken shirt in surprise, his eyes boring into hers.

"I'm not like that, Yuuki. I'm not! I'd never stoop so low… I'm not like other Level E vampires, who wouldn't think twice about sinking their fangs into your delicate flesh! I'd rather take my life than put you through what HE has!"

"Zero isn't a Level E!"

"Yet! But that doesn't stop him from draining your life out of you, now, does it!" he stopped and only continued to breathe heavily.

Yuuki only watched as Kaname was evidently trying to calm down. She didn't dare say a word. His rage was usually a quiet thing. Holes through the walls, trees torn down, windows shattered…but never shouting, no raising of voice. Only silent terror, while the world around explodes. His shouting right in her face wasn't like him at all…

"I don't," he continued in a much calmer voice, "I don't want anyone to take vitally important…things…away from you. Your blood is too precious to be spilled…"

Yuuki was amazed by his words. Even though his eyes shone red, she still managed to find something gentle and caring about them. He was still her Kaname. Somewhere beneath all that bloodlust, it was still him. Her savior, her protector.

Her love.

Yuuki slowly lifted her right hand and placed it back against his left cheek.

Kaname sighed in contentment and leaned into her touch.

"My blood is yours, Kaname-sama. It's always been yours."

At this, Kaname straightened his head and closed his fingers over her lifted wrist.

"And I think that the time has come for you to take some of it back," whispered Yuuki, silently wondering at her boldness.

But Kaname's eyes narrowed dangerously and his grip on her wrist tightened. A small rumble started deep in his throat, slowly escalating into a growl. His fangs lengthened and his upper lip was pulled back, showing his teeth.

At that moment, Yuuki felt as if her heart has stopped.

And suddenly without any warning, Kaname pulled on her wrist hard, to the side, causing Yuuki to lose her footing and she landed on the floor, a few feet away from him, knocking more glasses over in the process.

The sudden unexpected impact with the stained carpet confused her for a few seconds. When she finally realized what happened, she looked back up at Kaname, shock and hurt written across her face.

Kaname stared down at her with a shocked expression of his own. He took a step towards her, his hand reaching for her, palm up.

When suddenly his expression morphed into one of anger again and he clenched that hand into a fist. Small droplets of blood ran down his wrist from where his nails pierced his skin, soaking the cuff of his shirt.

He watched his hand for a moment, taking deep breaths, his chest rising and falling visibly even in the dim light of the room.

"I will not…" he suddenly rasped out. "…has to stop…my control…would've never…"

Yuuki was sure he was talking to himself. This scared the hell out of her. Kuran Kaname never mumbles to himself out loud. If she wasn't so scared at that moment, she would probably laugh. But she feared for his sanity just a little too much for humor.

She didn't dare to move from her position on the floor.

"Kaname-sama?" she asked in the softest voice possible.

But Kaname flinched as if she shouted right in his ear. His wide eyes stared down at her as if surprised to see her there. And then his face morphed into a mask of pain again and he buried his face in his hands.

"Yuuki, my sweet Yuuki…" he moaned into his hands, the sound being muffled by them. "Go."

Yuuki snapped her head to the left as she heard a tiny _click_ and she realized it was the door unlocking itself.

She slowly turned her head back to look at Kaname again. "But-"

"GO!" he suddenly roared, causing Yuuki to jump and the next thing she heard was a loud _bang_ as he slammed the door leading to his bedroom behind him. She didn't even see him move. Only a gentle breeze on her face told her that something moved real fast in the room.

Everything became quiet after that. The only sound in the room was Yuuki's heart again, hammering against her ribcage. She placed a hand over it, forcing it to beat slower. Not that it had any intention of obeying. It always had a mind of its own.

She didn't know how long she sat there on the floor, her legs folded beside her, staring at the door through which Kaname disappeared, but not really seeing anything.

It was a strange hollow feeling, knowing that her human life was so close to its end, but when she finally accepted the fact, it was thrown back at her, mercilessly.

It was like her purpose of life just vanished into thin air and she got lost, very abruptly…

Her purpose.

The purpose of coming here.

The reason why she came and got Ichijou into trouble.

The reason why she endured death glares for a whole week and got worried about him so much.

Of course. She came to help. Not make it possibly worse, what seems to be the case.

But how could she? He refused her help. He refused her blood.

No. Not her blood.

He didn't want to satisfy his thirst for such a large prize as sacrificing her humanity!

"_So the key is my blood…"_ she thought as her eyes roamed around the room, _"…but outside of my body."_

And her eyes landed on the pieces of broken glass around her.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

A/N: _Phew_! I thought I was never going to finish this!

Take care,

Matylda


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Warning: there's blood in this chapter. But I think you've all already figured that out.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Bloody nurse**

**Chapter 6**

Yuuki took a deep breath. She was staring at the shards lying on the carpet, not too far from her right hand, gleaming almost happily in the slight moonlight. They were the remains of one of the wineglasses, which Kaname has broken beneath his foot.

Her brain was working very fast, tying reason and insanity together. She couldn't tell right from wrong anymore. Was she suicidal? Most probably, since leaving was not an option for her. He needed her help. She was the only one, who had that power. And the means of achieving that were, quite literally, ripe for picking.

Yuuki wasn't even conscious of formulating the plan in the first place, but before she even realized what she was doing, her hand reached out for one of the bigger shards. Her trembling fingers slowly closed around the cool piece of glass, bringing it closer for inspection. The sharp edges of the shard dangerously gleamed in the slight lighting of the room as she turned it over and over in her hands. When she finally realized what she was doing, her hands froze. She was suicidal, wasn't she?

Suddenly, Zero's face popped up in her mind, his face furious, turning red from his anger, his fanged mouth shouting unintelligible words with no sound reaching her ears. His imaginary face kept bawling her out, occasionally mouthing the single word Yuuki could read from his lips without actually hearing it: Idiot.

Yuuki smiled briefly for her self. "_If Zero ever finds out about this, and chances are that he most likely will, I'll never hear the end of it."_ The chairman will reprimand her for it but at the same time, he'll be glad that everyone is fine in the end. Zero will be furious and he'll probably put her on a leash or something but… she will not regret her decision.

She tore her eyes away from the shard and she focused her gaze on the carpet in front of her. The dark stains on it were clearly visible up close. Blood. And not a small amount of it. All soaked up into the fibers of the carpet.

_Your blood is too precious to be spilled..._

So much blood has been spilled already. For the briefest of moments, Yuuki wondered who's blood decorated the floor of the room but she banished the thought as quickly as it came. She needed to focus. She needed to act fast, before fear caught up with her.

She closed her eyes to erase the image of stranger's blood from her mind and instead focused on the man behind the closed bedroom door. His usual calm gentle face appeared behind Yuuki's closed eyelids and she smiled softly again at the sight. But her face fell as Kaname's eyes turned crimson and his expression morphed into one of pure agony.

With a silent gasp, her eyes flew open. She never wanted to see that look upon her Kaname's face again. It was pure torture for her.

Taking a deep breath, she rearranged her legs beneath her so that she was kneeling and she reached forward for one of the overturned wineglasses, placing it back on its stalk in front of her. With her heart beating painfully against her ribcage she lifted her left hand over the glass, turning it over and she looked at the lines running across her white palm. She could faintly see her rapid pulse beating underneath her skin closer to her thumb…

Yuuki slowly lifted the sharp shard with her right hand and held it above her open palm. Her hands shivered violently as the fear of upcoming pain gripped her body. She breathed deeply several times and reminded herself: _"I'm doing it for him." _Biting her lower lip, she brought the sharp edge of the shard to her palm.

One heartbeat.

Two heartbeats.

And with a sharp intake of breath, she cut herself across the palm of her hand.

She watched in amazement as the first drop of blood made its appearance and slowly slid down her palm and dripped into the empty wineglass. But as it made contact with the bottom of the glass, her head snapped up in alarm as she heard a pain-filled howl coming through the bedroom door, accompanied with a loud thud.

Panic gripped her heart as she sat frozen on the floor, ignoring more drops of her blood slowly dripping into the glass. "Kaname…sama," she whispered into the darkness of the room, straining her ears for any sounds coming from the bedroom. For a while all she could hear was the soft _plop…plop _of her dribbling blood slowly gathering in the wineglass.

And then finally, she heard a tiny sob.

Kaname was _sobbing_ because of her. She held her own tears at bay from the heart-wrenching sounds coming from his direction and she looked back down at her hand. The bleeding was slowly stopping but taking one look at the glass, Yuuki knew that she needed more blood than that. She clenched and unclenched her hand several times, renewing the flow of her blood, further helping it by rubbing her forearm in the direction of her hand.

At the sight of her blood, she was shortly reminded of that fateful night when Kaname came to her rescue. Her beginning. The start of her great fondness for him. He was the reason she was still alive. She owed him her life… _"But for tonight,"_ she peered down into the half-full glass, _"my blood will have to do."_

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

"Calm down, Zero, I'm sure this is a misunderstanding."

"How can this be a misunderstanding when she's gone missing?"

"Are you sure you've checked everywhere?"

"What, you want me to search the whole grounds?" asked Zero in disbelieve, waving his hand in the direction of the office door.

The Chairman sighed, took of his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Take a seat, Zero."

"I'll stand."

The Chairman put his glasses back on, stood up from his desk and slowly turned away from a fuming Zero, heading towards one of his cabinets. "How about a chocolate candy?"

"Are you ignoring this on purpose?"

"I'm not ignoring anything, Zero, I'm trying to lighten up the mood."

"With candies."

"Yes, with candies," he said and placed one into his mouth. "Mmm, are you sure you don't want any?" he asked, offering the whole box to Zero on his way back to the desk.

Zero only stood there with his arms folded across his chest, boring his grey eyes into those of the Chairman.

The Chairman sighed again and placed the box on his desk. "Have you checked the dorm?"

"Yes."

"Her old bedroom?"

"Yes."

"Your bedroom?"

Zero paused for only a second. "Yes."

"All of the bathrooms?"

"What kind of a question is that?"

The Chairman lifted his hands in defense. "Just gathering the facts, Zero," he said calmly and seated himself behind the desk again. "Your patrol ended only twenty minutes ago. Yuuki has never been the punctual type, she might only be running late. But of course, you know this very well yourself. Which leads me to believe that there's more to what you're concerned about, am I right?" he finished, supporting his head on his hands under his chin.

Zero looked away from the chairman, focusing his gaze on the box of chocolates instead. "I think she was hiding something from me. She's not a very good liar so whenever she starts acting strange around me, I know something's up."

The Chairman considered that for a moment. "Yes, very perceptive, Zero. Do you have any idea as to what might be going on?"

Zero lifted his gaze back up to look at the Chairman as if he grew a second head. "Why don't you switch your brain on and think? What's usually causing Yuuki to behave abnormally? Or should I say _who_?"

The Chairman looked up at the ceiling and tapped his index finger against his lips: "Hmm, let me think…"

After a couple of seconds and a few eyebrow twitches later, Zero slammed his hands on the desk in front of him. "Kuran! It's always Kuran! And Yuuki's been acting strange ever since he stopped attending the classes!"

The Chairman leaned back in his seat and placed his hands behind his head. "Are you sure about this, Zero? It seems a little farfetched to me."

"How so?"

"Yuuki asked me about Kaname's whereabouts and I told her that he's never left the dormitory. And she left it at that."

"How does that prove anything?"

"And what proves your theory? I'm aware of the fact that you're not very _fond_ of Kaname but what makes you think that he's behind Yuuki's so-called disappearance?"

Not even a second later came a knock on the door.

"Come in," said the Chairman and Zero moved to stand beside the desk.

The door was opened and a nervous looking Ichijou entered the office. "Good evening, Chairman Cross."

"Ah, Ichijou-san, what brings you here?" asked the Chairman politely.

Zero's permanent frown deepened as he sniffed the air around them. Why did Ichijou smell so strongly of his own blood?

Ichijou rubbed the back of his neck nervously and said: "Well, you see, I came to inform you that Cross Yuuki is currently in Kaname-sama's chambers…with Kaname-sama…but everyone else was banned from entering…"

Zero turned his head sharply towards the Chairman: "Is this proof enough for you?"

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

A/N: Seeing Kaname all torn up and at the edge of his sanity is somehow…intriguing, I think.

I hope you've enjoyed this chapter at least a little bit. I know _I_'ve enjoyed writing the dialogue between the Chairman and Zero…they're just too much fun together ;)

Take care,

Matylda


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas break:) Consider this chapter a Christmas present from me…

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**Bloody nurse**

**Chapter 7**

The chairman sat quietly for some time, regarding Ichijou with sharp eyes, ignoring a very angry Zero standing right beside him. After a while, he leaned forward in his chair, bracing his elbows on the desk. "I suppose you have a specific reason for coming all the way here to tell me this."

Ichijou nodded his head. "Yes, I feel responsible for putting Yuuki in danger."

"You bastard…"

"Zero, please," said the Chairman, placing a hand on his adopted son's forearm. "Why would Yuuki be in danger, Ichijou-san, if she's with Kaname right now?"

"That is the problem, Chairman Cross. It's not in Yuuki's or anyone else's best interest to be near Kaname-sama at the moment, "said Ichijou, placing a hand over his already healed shoulder. "He…he really isn't himself."

"Is he still ill?"

"Well, yes. In a way. It's not really an illness, more like…obsession."

"Obsession with what?"

"Yuuki's blood."

The Chaiman only closed his eyes as a loud crash echoed around the room. Zero stood facing one of the now destroyed cabinets, through which he rammed his fist, breathing heavily. "Why," he asked, his blood slowly dribbling from his knuckles on the floor. "Why did you let her enter that place," he suddenly spun around, his voice gaining volume, "when you knew about this?"

Ichijou hung his head in regret. "I will not try making any excuses, I too now realize my mistake," he said, looking up at the Chairman, "however Kaname's suffering was too great to bear, we all felt it, we all tried to help him but nothing worked. He felt ashamed of himself, being so weak as to actually feel the physical pain such a thirst brings…so when Yuuki asked me to see him, I let her. Because I thought," he hung his head again, "that only she can put an end to it."

Zero looked down at his hand. He knew exactly what Ichijou meant by the physical pain…the degrading want for blood…the tightening of his stomach, a parched throat…a clouded hazy mind…the shameful feeling of being a beast…

The Chairman stood up, walked around the desk towards Ichijou and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I understand you wanted to help him, it's only natural. I don't blame you. I know Yuuki well enough to know that she would have found a way how to get past you, to reach her goal," he said and smiled crookedly.

"Chairman Cross…"

"However, Yuuki's my daughter and as her father, it is my duty to keep her safe. Now tell me, it there still time to do so?"

Ichijou straightened up and hurriedly answered: "There might be. I'll take you to Kaname's chambers." He reached for the door handle but Zero beat him to it, swung the door open and started running down the corridor. The Chairman and Ichijou quickly followed after him.

"I have to warn you though," said Ichijou while running down the stairs, "Kaname's powers are extremely dangerous in his current state."

"I thought I smelled your blood…" mumbled Zero and Ichijou only sighed.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

Yuuki sat in the dark, looking at the nearly filled wineglass on the floor in front of her, her hand still hovering over it. She didn't feel the pain anymore. Most of her senses were numbed. Only her heart kept on beating against her ribcage, as if it wanted to break free and run after Kaname. Will it work? What will he think? What will he do? She didn't know. The answers to these questions lied right behind the door to his bedroom.

With her other hand, she reached into a pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. With a slight pang in her lungs, she realized it was Zero's. She really should stop borrowing his things all the time… She wrapped it around her cut hand carefully and smiled: _"Zero's somehow helping me even though he's not here."_

She took a deep calming breath, trying to stay calm and focused. She grabbed the wineglass with her good hand and carefully stood up. No need to make any more stains on the once pretty carpet. Gingerly and slowly she started walking towards the door, avoiding the other wineglasses and pieces of furniture. When she finally reached it, she stopped and listened. Everything was quiet until she heard a low moan from behind the door. No doubt he knew she was on the other side of it.

She took another deep breath and very slowly opened the door. "Kaname-sempai?" she called in a very tiny voice and entered the room. She looked around herself but all she could see was an unmade large canopy bed and a wardrobe on the other side of the room, but no sign of Kaname. Yuuki tried calling out once more: "Kaname-sempai, please…"

This time she did get an answer in the form of a whimper, coming from behind the bed. She slowly walked to the place where she heard the sound coming from but what she saw made her stop and gasp in surprise. Kaname was sitting on the floor, his back propped up against the wall, legs spread out in front of him, hands limply lying by his sides, head bowed with strands of hair obscuring his face from view. He looked spent, tired…resigned. Yuuki has never seen him so vulnerable. She felt like crying again just at the sight of him.

"K-Kaname-sempai…" she whispered again and took another step closer to him.

At her movement, Kaname's fingers twitched and he gradually lifted his head and leaned it against the wall, tilting it slightly towards her. He took a deep whiff through his nose and let all the air out on the word- "Yuuki…"

"Yes," was all she said, for no other words were able to form on her tongue.

"Yuuki," Kaname said again, "so cruel."

Yuuki tried swallowing the lump in her throat.

"Provoking me with the smell…taunting the beast within me…"

Yuuki wanted to explain quickly: "No, that's not-"

"Why didn't you leave when I told you to? You're so disobedient today…"

"No, I couldn't have let you-"

"Bad, bad Yuuki. It's almost like you want to be punished…"

Yuuki gave up on trying to explain, he obviously wasn't listening.

"But I can't do that, Yuuki, no…" he said, opening his crimson shining eyes and looking at her. "It would be too much…both for you and me…" and suddenly his whole body convulsed. Moaning, he grabbed at his stomach and his throat, leaning forward, unleashing a bit of his power as the bedpost closest to Yuuki cracked along its length.

Yuuki squeaked in surprise and jumped away from the bed, closer to Kaname, balancing the wineglass in her hand. She almost screamed when Kaname all of a sudden grabbed her ankle and rasped out: "Leave, Yuuki, please just leave," but his words were in contradiction with his actions, as his grip on her tightened.

Yuuki listened to his laboured breathing and watched with wide eyes the great and powerful Kuran Kaname, cowering at her feet. Leaving was not an option for her, that much she knew. She's gotten so far already. And she felt genuine pity for the man…the vampire…who became a slave to his nature.

Slowly, not to alarm him with her movement, she squatted down next to him but as soon as she moved, Kaname withdrew his hand and leaned away from her back to his spot against the wall. He watched her with weary eyes, all his muscles tensed, as if ready to spring away from her.

"Kaname-sempai, please calm down. I want to help you," Yuuki tried reasoning with him.

"It's too dangerous for you to be here…"

"I believe it's not."

"I could have hurt you back there. I could have-"

"No. You're my saviour. You're my beginning. You were always there for me, let me help you in turn, please…" pleaded Yuuki, moving closer to him on her knees, bringing the wineglass up to his face. "Please, Kaname-sempai, drink this."

As Kaname's eyes landed on the glass in her hand, they began to shine ever brighter. He swallowed thickly and fisted his hands by his sides.

"You said my blood was too precious to be spilled. Will you let this go to waste? Think of it as a medicine, it will cure you. Please, "said Yuuki and brought the glass just a breath away from his lips. She placed her other hand on the back of his neck, moving his head slightly forward. As soon as the rim of the glass made contact with his lips, Kaname moaned, put his hand over Yuuki's and brought the tilted glass fully to his lips. His eyes slowly closed in pleasure, as he slowly savoured every gulp.

Yuuki watched his face in wonder, silently wondering what it would feel like to be drinking something so much to her liking. Kaname's expression was of pure bliss…

When he finally finished drinking the blood, Yuuki pulled her hands back, and placed the now empty wineglass on the ground next to her. Slowly, she turned back around to face Kaname, only to see him looking back at her with his usual wine-coloured eyes, which she loved so much. She smiled tentatively, happy to see him returned back to his normal self – calm, collected, his posture upright.

His eyes slid down to her left hand that was still wrapped in the handkerchief. Very gently, he took her wrist with one hand and slowly unwrapped her palm with the other, hissing slightly at the sight of the cut.

"It's OK," said Yuuki hurriedly, "it doesn't hurt anymore."

Kaname completely ignored her and brought her hand to his lips. Gently, he licked along the line of the cut several times to clean it and then he placed his lips over it, bathing her hand in that strange calming purple light, completely healing it. He turned her hand over, kissed her knuckles once and released her hand.

Rosy blush crept up to Yuuki's cheeks at his actions. "Er, thank you…"

"No," said Kaname in a deep sure voice, "I thank you," he corrected her and looked deeply into her eyes.

Yuuki's blush deepened and she stared right back into his eyes. She was getting slightly lost in them. It also seemed as if they were getting somehow bigger…or closer…

"YUUKI!"

…and she heard Zero's voice…

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

A/N: I hope I didn't disappoint anyone with the outcome… Kaname was a bit OOC, I admit, but I needed him that way…

As usual, please feel free to point out any mistakes you found. Sometimes even proofreading doesn't help…

Take care,

Matylda


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: /sigh/ It seems like one must have a bad case of cold in order to have time to write…

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**Bloody nurse**

**Chapter 8**

Yuuki was sitting alone in the chairman's office, in a chair right in front of the desk, waiting. All she could hear was the steady ticking of a clock placed somewhere in the room. She felt relatively calm, her eyes, not focusing on anything in particular, lowered to her lap.

The whole incident felt almost like a dream to her in the brightly lit room. It seemed so far away. The darkness of Kaname's chambers gave the whole experience an almost artificial tint. Had it all truly happened?

Yuuki's eyes drifted to her left hand and she turned it over to examine her palm for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past ten minutes. There was no sign of the former cut or any blood whatsoever. Kaname's powers healed it completely, leaving it as good as before.

Yuuki gasped as the memory of Kaname's bright red eyes flashed across her mind. She could still recall the image so vividly. It was the only proof for her at that moment that it really did happen.

Before she had time to think about it some more, she heard footsteps in the corridor, briskly approaching the door. She turned her head around just in time to see Zero enter the room.

He closed the door quietly behind him and slowly moved to the Chairman's desk, his face an expressionless mask, his eyes never meeting Yuuki's. He leaned against the front of the desk, his hands gently gripping the edge of it, his ankles crossed. His head remained downcast, some strands of hair falling over his eyes. After this, all movement in the room ceased, the ticking of the clock resuming its dominant position again.

Yuuki tried to peer at Zero's face, or what she could see of it. He reminded her of a marble statue dressed in a school uniform, no necktie, both jacket and vest undone, as well as the two top buttons of his shirt. He was actually standing very close to her, their knees almost touching. He remained still and quiet for what seemed like forever.

Yuuki remained silent as well; she was not going to shatter the peaceful silence with something embarrassing coming out of her mouth. She could still recall with clarity Zero's rage upon barging into Kaname's bedroom, the shouting that ensued, Ichijou's restraining hands, the Chairman's words of reason, Kaname's impassive behaviour…

Yuuki closed her eyes as the memories came rushing back. It all happened too fast. Before she could even get a word in, she was being dragged out of the room and her thoughts were all jumbled after that. She should have tried more. She should have tried to explain it all…

"Are you ok?" asked Zero so suddenly that it made Yuuki's head snap up towards him. His head was still bowed downwards.

It took Yuuki a moment to find her voice but in the end she replied: "Um, yes." That would have to do for the moment. She was scared of saying anything else.

Zero took a deep breath through his nose. "You sure?"

Yuuki nodded her head, though he probably couldn't see it. "Yes, I am."

After this, Zero returned to his statue mode again.

Yuuki was feeling extremely uncomfortable. She knew very well that the worst was yet to come. When she realized that Zero was not going to say anything more, she dropped her gaze back down. Her eyes roamed over the front of his jacket, realizing that it was torn in one spot and that it was missing a button as well. And then her eyes landed on his right hand. Her eyes widened at the sight of the blood covering his knuckles, the few stains on the cuff of his shirt, and her mind went back to the loud brawl back in Kaname's chambers.

"Are **you** ok?" she asked him timidly, never moving her eyes away from his hand.

Zero's brows furrowed at her question but when he followed the direction of her gaze he sighed and impatiently waved the bloodied hand in the direction of the broken cabinet to his right.

Upon seeing the trashed piece of furniture, Yuuki's expression morphed into one of confusion. "What exactly happ-"

"Forget about that," he interrupted her forcefully, staring down at her with the hardest of gazes.

Yuuki tried holding his gaze but it was proving to be a very difficult task. She felt as if she was shrinking in her seat.

"What were you thinking?" he asked her rather calmly, his voice and his expression completely out of sync.

Yuuki didn't know if she should even venture answering that question. She looked back down at her own hands. "He needed help," she said in the quietest of voices.

At this, Zero snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "Help, right," he said as if to himself. "And you thought you'd save the day by visiting the dog's den."

Yuuki's head snapped up at his scornful words. "I was the only one who could help him, Zero, it was my responsibility, since I was the cause of his suffering!"

"Your responsibility, eh?"

"Of course it was! And I would've done anything to help him, I owe him at least that much. If my blood is what it-"

"Don't! Please don't tell me you knew what you were in for when you left for that place! I'd rather blame this on your naivety than blind stupidity!"

Yuuki's mouth fell open in disbelief.

Zero ran his clean hand through his hair in frustration.

For some time, the ticking of the clock was the only sound in the room again.

All of a sudden, Yuuki felt extremely tired. The evening was way too eventful for her liking. She was exhausted; she wanted this day to end. But first of all, she had to end this quarrel…

"Look, Zero, I'm sorry for making you worried, but I'm not sorry for what I've done…"

Zero shook his head from side to side, a bitter smirk marring his face. "I told you, haven't I, that I didn't want you to meddle in this time, that it might be too much. You never listen…" he said almost dejectedly, looking away to the side.

Yuuki sighed tiredly, leaning back against the backrest, closing her eyes in the process. "I'm fine, Zero, nothing bad happened. I managed to do what I wanted to do and I'm still me, the same old stubborn annoying never-listening me," she said and opened her eyes, only to squeal and jump in surprise, as Zero's face was hovering only a few centimetres away from hers.

He caged her in her seat, with his arms on either side of her, supporting his weight on the armrests, his cold sharp eyes boring into hers.

Yuuki sat still for what seemed like minutes, when he finally rasped out: "I can smell your blood on you."

For reasons unknown to her, she blushed at his words. "Um, yeah, I cut my hand in order to…um…well…but it's healed and clean now, so…" she trailed off as Zero bent his head to one side, closer to her shoulder and took several whiffs along her arm.

"That's not it," he said and neared her skirt. "This is already dried but there's quite a lot of it…"

Yuuki blushed even harder and grabbed his shoulder. "Zero, what are you-"

"What's in your pocket?" he suddenly asked and straightened back up.

Yuuki blinked at him stupidly several times, until she recovered. "Oh, right!" she said, reached into the pocket of her skirt and pulled out the bloodied handkerchief, which was wrapped around her hand earlier.

Zero hissed at the sight and turned his head away, trying to breathe through his mouth only.

Yuuki realised her mistake and quickly pocketed the offending object. "Sorry…"

Zero only grunted at that.

After several more seconds of silence, Yuuki was overcome by a mouth splitting, jaw dislocating yawn.

Watching her rub one of her eyes with her fist like a small child, complete with a pout, Zero sighed: "Go to bed, it's pretty late. School tomorrow."

"I hate school," whined Yuuki as she got to her feet and started in the direction of the door.

When her hand reached for the doorknob, Zero spoke up: "One more thing, Yuuki."

She turned her head to look at him. He was leaning against the desk with his arms crossed again, staring at the floor.

"I'm glad you decided to use your brain in the end," he said and looked up at her. "It was all pretty stupid of you to begin with, but at least you're still you."

"Zero, Kaname-sempai wouldn't-"

"No, save your breath, you know what I think about them all…"

And perhaps he was right, Yuuki thought, because if there's something she found out that night, it's that there is a side to Kaname-sama, which she doesn't know, which she might not be able to trust so fully. After all, this encounter was really close. She came very close to changing her life, to changing her light into darkness, her days into nights…

She smiled weakly at him. "Good night," she said and exited the office.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

"Ah, we'll have to order the special cleaning services, I see," said Ichijou in a cheery voice, as he looked around the finally lit study of Kaname's chambers.

Kaname, for his part, was standing by one of the tall windows, twirling a wineglass in his fingers, remaining silent.

"I'll start putting all these glasses in this box here, so that you can have some space to move around this room and have them carried out later, if that's fine with you."

"Yes, thank you, Ichijou."

"I'm glad to finally be of at least some help to you. We were all so worried this past week," he said as he bent for another glass.

"I appreciate your sentiments."

"I'm sure the others have felt the change by now, they'll all be thrilled to see you well again," said Ichijou, smiling all the time.

Kaname slowly ran his free hand down the soft heavy material of the curtains hanging by the window. "How's the shoulder?" he asked, still facing the window.

"All healed by now, and very worth it, I might add," he laughed, "And I'd do it - Oh…" he suddenly trailed off, as he reached the place where most of the shards were strewn.

Kaname turned around to see what the matter was.

Ichijou picked one of the shards up and held it between his thumb and index finger. One tip of it was slightly smeared with blood.

Kaname walked over to where Ichijou was standing and extended the hand with the wineglass towards him. Ichijou looked up at Kaname for just a brief moment and then dropped the shard into the glass, where it made a soft clink.

"Yuuki-chan really is special, isn't she," smiled Ichijou again.

Kaname kept on twirling the wineglass, watching the shard at the bottom of it. "That, she is."

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

A/N: Those of you who are still reading this, even though it almost never gets updated, you have my heart.

Please feel free to bring any mistakes to my attention.

Take care,

Matylda


	9. Chapter 9

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**Bloody nurse**

**Chapter 9**

Zero watched her sleep. He noted how restless she was that night. She kept on tossing around the bed, mumbling incoherent things into her pillow, her eyes moved rapidly behind her eyelids, her fingers twitching. He watched as beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, dampening her side swept fringe, as her brow furrowed in response to what seemed like a bad dream.

He thought long and deep that night. Watching her sleep, without her even realizing his presence, he was almost overwhelmed by her vulnerability. Yet she managed to prove how strong she actually was on many occasions, this night being no exception.

As soon as they entered Kaname's chambers, he smelt her sweet blood. It hit him so sharply in the nose that his knees became weak for a second and all of the worst possible scenarios of what might have happened to her flashed across his mind. He tore through the study, shouting her name in rage and barged through the door to Kaname's bed chamber, where the scent led him. The scene he found there brought him up short though. She sat there on the floor, her big startled eyes peering up at him. Kaname was sitting up against a wall, so very close to her, his face a calm mask as always, watching him with challenging eyes. The scent of her blood was all around them. Zero had to swallow thickly as he felt the familiar tightening in his throat. All it took was Kaname's miniature smirk and Zero snapped. However, the lunge for Kaname's throat was quickly thwarted by Ichijou's strong restraining arms, keeping him in place, while he watched as the Chairman appeared before him, kneeling down next to Yuuki…

He hated himself. He despised them all for what they were but he wasn't any different. He hated himself even more because his greatest enemy was better at suppressing his thirst than he was. He detested himself because he was the only one causing Yuuki such pain for his own gain. Kuran resisted. He never did. Who exactly should he be trying to keep her safe from?

Zero sighed as he yet again bent down to retrieve her comforter that was mercilessly kicked to the floor.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

When Yuuki opened her eyes, her sleep fogged brain slowly registered the beautifully ornamented ceiling. She frowned at the discovery. Her dormitory bedroom didn't have such a ceiling... Only when sleep finally left her completely did she realize that this was the ceiling of her old bedroom.

Before she could question herself on the reason behind her being there, the events of the previous night came rushing back in snaps, mixed with the most intriguing yet terrifying dreams she had that night: the door leading to the Moon dormitory, Ichijou's bloodied shirt, the darkness of Kaname's chambers, the dark stains on the carpet, blood running down her hand, Kaname's crimson eyes, Zero's crimson eyes, her crimson eyes, thirst… such thirst…

Yuuki's hand flew to her eyes and she rubbed at them vehemently. The dream was gone and that was enough. She will have to face the reality of another school day very soon so she might as well start getting ready by pushing everything she didn't understand to the very back of her mind.

_It's slowly getting jam-packed in there, huh…_

She turned on her side lazily, in order to slowly lower her feet to the floor, only to bolt upright into a sitting position, hurriedly scramble to the other side of the bed, pulling the comforter up to her chin and stare ahead of her.

"Good morning to you, too."

"What the heck are you doing here, Zero?"

"Sitting."

"I see that!" snapped Yuuki. "But why?"

"Cause it's more comfortable than standing."

"Urg," said Yuuki exasperatedly, dropping her forehead on her comforter covered knees. "It's too early in the morning for this, Zero," she mumbled, her voice muffled by the bedding.

"Actually," said Zero, getting up from the chair he was sitting on, "it's not that early. I was about to wake you up." He lifted his arms over his head and stretched his back. Bringing one arm back down, he checked his watch. "School starts in an hour, so go and get ready," he said in a bored voice and started for the door.

Yuuki followed him with her eyes, watching as he was trying to loosen up one shoulder. She frowned.

"Zero," she called him softly.

"Hm?" he hummed as he turned around at the door.

"How long exactly were you… _sitting_ here, while I was asleep?" she asked him earnestly.

Zero's face was an impassive mask as he answered: "Not long, I came in a moment ago. Get moving, you'll be late," he said and promptly exited the room.

Yuuki's frown deepened and she looked back at the chair not far from her bed that was previously occupied by Zero. She sat there, chewing her lip, until her eyes travelled to the desk behind the chair and her gaze landed on a book that someone left behind.

Yuuki sighed and proceeded to untangle herself from the bedding.

"What a watchdog."

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

Yuuki yawned.

"Another difficult night?" asked Yori while putting her pen back into her pencil case and zipping it closed.

Yuuki nodded tiredly. "You could say that…"

"Did you have to chase Aidou-sempai around again?"

Yuuki folded her arms on the top of the desk and laid her head against them. "No, not Aidou-sempai," she answered absentmindedly with eyes closed, "it was Kaname-sempai I had to chase down…"

"…Really? Kaname-sempai?"

"Huh?" answered Yuuki smartly and cracked one eye open.

"Kaname-sempai was causing you problems?" Yori asked, looking very surprised.

"What? No! Not at all!" exclaimed Yuuki hurriedly, waving her hands before her face, finally realizing what she said. "No problems what so ever! He just…wanted to…discuss several things. Um, prefect job related…things…" she trailed of nervously.

"Is that so? Well, I think it's really inconsiderate of him, keeping you up so late," said Yori earnestly, worried for her friend. "You didn't even come back to the dorm."

"Yeah, I didn't want to wake you up, so I just slept in my old bedroom…"

Yori smiled. "That's just so you, Yuuki. You put others before you."

Yuuki blushed and looked down.

"And that blush too!" laughed Yori, Yuuki nervously joining her.

When their laughter died down, Yori looked at her watch and said: "Oh, I need to go to the library, I have a book that's due today. Are you coming?"

"No, go on without me," smiled Yuuki, both of the girls knowing how she, unlike Yori, didn't really enjoy the peace and quiet within the library walls.

"Ok, I'll see you later," waved Yori and headed for the door.

Yuuki watched her go and as the door closed behind her friend, she laid her head on her arms again. She did feel tired. Maybe she should have gone to the library and catch several minutes of sleep among the rows and rows of dusty old books, in that section that rarely gets visited by students, where it always smells funny of dust, mould and something else, that smells oddly like rust, or metal. Something that she smelt yesterday…in Kaname's chambers…a metallic scent that evokes memories…dark memories…and thirst…thirst so powerful…so red…crimson…crimson eyes…

Yuuki suddenly felt a thud next to her head and she quickly sat up with an audible gasp. Zero was sitting on her desk, his jacket undone, hands in pockets, looking down at her with an intense gaze.

"Zero," sighed Yuuki, closing her eyes, "don't scare me like that…"

"So," said Zero, his gaze never leaving her, "I hear that Kuran didn't cause you any problems last night."

Yuuki groaned.

"So noble of you, cutting your hand open, letting him sip your blood so elegantly."

"Zero!" hissed Yuuki, looking around the classroom frantically to make sure that all of the other students have already left.

"Usually the guy invites the girl out for a drink, not the other way around."

"Stop it," she said, smacking him over the knee closest to her.

"In any case, he should always," he leaned closer to her, "always," even closer, "pay."

Yuuki stared right back into his grey eyes, already feeling fed up with his patronizing behaviour. "In that case, I believe you owe me big time, Zero," she said, feeling her heart tighten at her own cruel words.

Zero didn't move, only his eyes roamed over her pinked face and dropping lower to the base of her throat. "I know," he said in an even tone, as if he was totally unfazed by her retort. "That's why I'm trying to protect you."

"I don't need protection, Zero."

"That's what you think."

"No, that's what I _know_," she insisted. "I went to Kaname-sempai even though you've warned me. I did what I had to do, and I was right to do so. Even if you hadn't come for me in the end, I still would have come back alright."

Zero slowly straightened his back.

"He didn't need to pay, Zero, I did. _I_ caused the problem so I had to help."

Zero frowned deeply. "But you didn't cause _my_ problem, so what obligations do you have to me?"

By then, Yuuki was thoroughly annoyed with his stubbornness. She stood up, becoming level with his face. "You don't understand at all, do you?" she asked him hotly. "I don't need to have obligations in order to help you. I care for you, that's why I want to do whatever I can. I don't care what it takes, I don't care who's next in line. If I can, I will help," she finished resolutely. Giving him one last sharp look, she grabbed her bag, turned on her heel and walked quickly down the stairs of the aisle. When she was almost at the door, she was jerked back around by a strong hand gripping her upper arm.

Startled, she stared up at Zero's face which was slowly becoming the mask of the beast within him that she now knew so well. The rims of his irises were becoming red and he was breathing heavily through his nose. Realization dawned on her and she quickly looked behind her at the door. She didn't fear him in this form anymore but anyone could enter the classroom at any moment. She tried to tug her arm away but he held fast.

He drew himself closer to her. "What are you thinking, Yuuki?" he said in a pleading voice. "You can't nurse everyone with your own blood."

Yuuki remained silent. She watched as he clearly fought his instincts. By now, his eyes were fully red. She couldn't help but compare them to Kaname's crimson eyes, mad with thirst. They were the same, yet different, and for a moment Yuuki wasn't sure which pair she was looking into.

_Mad with thirst…what does it feel like?_

She stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his middle, hugging him close, as she leaned one side of her face against his chest, listening to his rapid heartbeat. She felt his hands tremble as he drew her even closer by her upper arms, bending his head next to hers. He was much easier to coax than Kaname, so much further gone so quickly…

Not letting herself feel any pain, she listened to his short quiet satisfied moans between gulps of blood and felt his arms snaking towards her back, hugging her much the same way as she was hugging him.

_Drinking what you desire so much…what does it feel like?_

Her mind suddenly conjured up the image of her own two eyes, crimson with want, and her throat went suddenly dry as she began to feel…thirsty…

Zero grunted and drew her, if possible, even closer.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

A/N: My dear readers, if you've read this far, seriously consider the possibility of having unnatural power of patience.

Again, if you spot any mistakes, please let me know.

Take care,

Matylda


	10. Chapter 10

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**Bloody nurse**

**Chapter 10**

"How do you like the soup?" asked Chairman Cross, sitting across the table from Zero, Yuuki sitting to his left. "I went to this amazing butcher shop yesterday and said I wanted to make the best broth imaginable for my children and the butcher advised me to buy this pork… Do you like it? I made it extra thick and yummy…"

"It's delicious, dad," smiled Yuuki, making the Chairman instantly happy.

"I'm so glad you think so! Here, have some more bread, it goes so well together." And he passed her the bread basket, which Yuuki took with a nod of thanks and placed it in front of her bowl. The chairman looked at Zero and seeing him eating spoonful after spoonful with his head bent over the bowl, he required no words from him. "That's good, that's good," he said to no one in particular.

Yuuki chewed on her bread and slid her eyes towards Zero for the umpteenth time during that dinner. He was silent, distant and avoided any eye contact, which she wasn't really surprised about. What did surprise her, however, was the vehemence with which he was gulping down the food. _How can he be hungry not too long after…? _She bit into the slice of bread again. _How does it work anyway? Vampires swallow blood, so it naturally has to go down to their stomachs. _She grabbed a glass of water to take a sip but paused to look at the contents of it. _Or is it more like drinking water? That doesn't really stop hunger… but it quenches thirst… but blood is both…it's all you need… _And as she was bringing the glass towards her lips, she watched the clear water slowly turning pink, red, and redder. She wanted to taste it…she wanted…something… Something she always wanted…

And she screamed.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

"Enter," said Kaname, sitting behind his desk in his chambers, going over a document that needed to be signed.

Ichijou entered the room holding a tray in his hands. "Sorry to disturb you, Kaname-sama, but the Chairman wanted me to present his latest handiwork to you." He placed the tray on one side of the desk. "He would have come in person but he said there's something he must take care of."

Kaname lowered the document he was reading and looked at the bowl of steaming soup.

"He said he'd value your opinion."

Kaname sniffed at the air around the soup. "Very well," he said, reaching for the spoon lying beside the pink flower-patterned bowl.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

Zero knew something was wrong even before he received the splash of cold water. He heard her pulse suddenly accelerate before she screamed so loud that it knocked the Chairman off of his chair.

The glass she was holding was mercilessly thrown at the table, drenching everything, his lap included, with water.

Yuuki for her part sat leaning back, holding both of her hands over her mouth, eyes wide with evident fear and surprise. For several seconds, everything went quiet.

"Yuuki-chan," said the Chairman urgently, getting up from the floor, "What happened, what is it?"

But Yuuki didn't hear a word. Her eyes were fixed on the tablecloth that was covered in red stains, some of the red dripping to the floor.

"Yuuki-chan?"

She watched as the stains got bigger and bigger until they turned everything on the table red. She clenched her eyes shut. _No, no, no…_

"Yuuki!"

And her eyes flew open, meeting a pair of worried grey eyes. Zero was leaning over the table, clutching her shoulder with one of his hands. "Are you alright?"

Yuuki slowly lowered her hands from her mouth and turned her gaze back to the tabletop, now covered with a white tablecloth again, albeit wet with water.

"What the hell happened?" demanded Zero, shaking her a little for emphasis.

Yuuki looked back at his now frowning face and then turned her head towards the Chairman, hovering helplessly at her other side.

Her eyes fell towards her lap and she gulped thickly. "Nothing, I'm sorry," she finally said. "I-I thought I saw a spider in the glass, so…"

She chanced a quick look at both of them. "I'm really sorry."

The Chairman sighed and fell back onto his chair. "Oh, Yuuki! You scared the hunter out of me!"

Zero slowly let go of her shoulder and straightened up.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly.

"Oh my, what a voice you have! I swear I heard the animals flee from the school grounds," Chairman Cross said, using his napkin to fan his face, clutching his chest with his other hand.

Yuuki stood up. "I'll clean it all up, it's the least I can do."

The Chairman stood up as well. "Then I'll go find you a mop, I'm sure we have one somewhere…" he headed for the door. "Where did I put it though…" he said to himself and closed the door behind him.

Yuuki went into the kitchen area and came back with a dry dishcloth. "Incredible how much water fits into one glass, isn't in?" she asked and looked up at the still standing Zero. Then she noticed something. "Gosh, did it spill on you too? I'm so sorry," she said hurrying to his side. "Luckily it was only water, it won't leave any stains," and she pressed the dishcloth to Zero's abdomen.

Zero's muscles twitched and he grabbed her wrist.

"Oops, sorry, didn't know you were ticklish…" but she trailed off as she looked up at his face.

Zero's face was a mixture of worry, anger, fear and a warning. He pierced her with a stare. "What did you really see?"

"Huh?"

His hold on her wrist tightened. "What was it that you really saw that caused you to act the way you did?"

Yuuki's eyes widened slightly. "Nothing!" she said hurriedly. "Except the imaginary spider, of course," she laughed lightly.

"Since when are you afraid of spiders?"

"Since forever! Every girl is."

"Liar."

"Bully."

Zero watched her eyes dart towards the table now and then.

"Afraid it'll appear in your bathtub water?"

"What?" she said in a high pitched voice, swinging her eyes back to him.

"The spider."

"Oh."

Zero watched her fidget under his frowning gaze.

Yuuki opened her mouth to say something undoubtedly smart but she lost track of what it was when her eyes were suddenly drawn towards a movement beneath Zero's chin. His throat. She instantly became mesmerized. Her brain slowed down, as if fogged…

"Why are you so jumpy?" Zero asked, oblivious to the change in her demeanour.

Her gaze resting on the collar of his school shirt, she answered in a much deeper voice than usual: "Isn't my hand pressed against your abs a reason enough to be jumpy?"

Zero's eyes widened. "W-What?" he stuttered, not sure if his hearing wasn't failing him. As if electrified, he let go of her wrist.

Yuuki looked up at him with wide innocent eyes and asked in her usual voice: "What?"

Zero was spared the embarrassing situation as the Chairman chose that moment to show up with the mop. "Here it is! Found it!" he smiled at the two of them.

"Thank you," said Yuuki, turning back towards the table and proceeded to collect the tableware, completely ignorant of what passed between them just seconds ago.

"Can I leave the rest to the two of you?"

"Sure," smiled Yuuki.

Zero walked around the table and followed the Chairman towards the door. Before exiting the room after him, he looked over his shoulder back at Yuuki and told her: "I'll be right back," and closed the door behind him.

Yuuki watched them go and took a deep breath when she was finally alone. She rubbed her eyes with one hand and gathered one neatly stacked pile of dishes into her hands. "I must be going crazy…" She walked into the kitchen area and headed for the sink. But as she was about to place the dishes on the counter, the very top one slid off of the others and smashed against the floor. Yuuki winced at the harsh sound and sighed. Just her luck.

She finally placed the rest successfully on the counter and squatted down to pick up what was left of the plate. She formed a small pile with the bigger shards on the floor and retrieved a dustpan and a brush. But as she carefully kneeled down and began sweeping the rest onto the dustpan, her mind wondered off, back to the events of the previous night, back to Kaname's chambers. Her sweeping slowed down as her eyes landed on the shards and her mind recalled the moment when she was kneeling down on Kaname's carpeted floor among the many strewn wineglasses…

Before she even realized what she was doing, Yuuki suddenly found herself kneeling on the kitchen floor with her left hand cut open, her right hand holding a shard from the former plate, which she instantly dropped the second she realized what she had done.

Scared and confused, she looked around the room for something to quickly cover it with. Finding nothing in her vicinity, she examined the cut closer. It wasn't deep, nor was it that long. As she watched some of her blood flow freely between her fingers and drip to the floor, an odd idea struck her: she wanted to taste it. _I'm crazy, right? This is weird. I should feel repulsed. I should…but I really, really want to… just one taste… _She bent slightly forward, bringing her hand up. She parted her lips and darted her tongue out. She took a deep breath that filled her hazy mind with sweet metallic scent and finally tasted what she so strangely desired.

"What are you doing?"

Yuuki's head spun around to see Zero in the doorway. "Um, I…"

Zero's gaze finally rested on her bloodied hand. His eyes widened and he quickly strode towards her. "For crying out loud, what did you do?" he asked urgently and grabbed her left wrist and dragged her to her feet and to the sink. Turning the tap on, he stuck her hand under the flow of cold water.

Yuuki winced. "I accidentally broke a plate and wasn't very careful while cleaning it up…"

"You're such a klutz sometimes, I swear I can't leave you in the kitchen alone for…" but Zero's tirade trailed off as he turned his face towards her. His eyes were instantly drawn towards her lips that were slightly smeared with blood. Seeing this he looked up into her eyes and his frown deepened considerably. He let go of her hand, reached up to open a top cabinet and pulled down a clean hand towel. He wet it in the flowing water, grabbed the back of Yuuki's neck and roughly rubbed the towel against her face, much like a mother would do to a child that just finished eating an icecream.

"Mmmm! Zero! S-Stop it!" protested Yuuki.

When he was satisfied with the result, he flunk the towel into the sink, turned the water off, reached for another one and wrapped it around her injured hand.

"Come on," he said, grabbing her other hand and towed her out of the room.

"Zero! Wait!"

But he ignored her protests all the way to their destination, which was the Chairman's huge bathroom. He pushed her through the door and instantly started rummaging through the cabinet under the washbasin.

"Sit down," he gritted through his teeth.

Yuuki, clutching her wrapped hand to her chest, looked around and saw a chair in the corner. "Zero, it's nothing. I can take care of it myself, you don't-" but her sentence was cut short as Zero urgently grabbed her by the waist and sat her down upon the counter next to the washbasin.

"Hey! Stop manhandling me!"

"I don't see that happening any time soon," he said quietly, screwing a bottle of disinfectant open.

"Excuse me?" said Yuuki disbelievingly.

He uncovered her hand and started to gently pat the cut with a disinfectant soaked cotton swab.

Yuuki hissed at the sharp stinging.

"Hold still."

Yuuki sighed. He was in his watch dog mode, there was no talking to him. She watched him through her bangs as he finished cleaning and bandaging the cut in silence. When he was done, he collected all the swabs and small papers littering the countertop and threw them into a small rubbish bin by the door. With his mission done, he slowly turned around to face Yuuki.

"Thanks," she said, waving the hand in the air in front of her, "but you could have gone about it with more grace, you know."

Zero ignored her comment and went to close the still open cabinet.

"We better get going, right?" she said. "Duty calls."

But before she could hop off the counter, Zero stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "No." He took hold of her prefect badge and slowly slid it off of her arm.

"What are you-"

"No prefect duty for you tonight."

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

All the girls standing in front of the gate that led to the Moon dorms were very calm and quiet that day. This had a very simple reason. The one watching over the parade was the Chairman himself. Wearing a long coat, his arms folded behind his back, a trademark smile in place, he watched as the gate slowly began to open and the Night class students finally appeared.

"Aw, man, what is this?" complained Aidou. "No cheers? Really? Where's all the fun? I want to hear – Ow!" Aidou quickly looked to his side at Kaname.

"Behave," was all Kaname had to say for Aidou to pout and shut up.

"Good evening, Chairman Cross."

"Hello, Kaname!" the Chairman smiled widely. "So, how did you like my soup?"

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**A/N**: I know, I know, Yuuki's totally OOC in some parts of this, but it was needed…

Hope you've enjoyed this chapter at least a little bit.

I wish you very late Merry Christmas and a very close Happy New Year.

Please inform me of any potential mistakes.

Take care,

Matylda


	11. Chapter 11

…

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**Bloody nurse**

**Chapter 11**

The next afternoon, it rained. It was pouring. It seemed as if buckets of water were being constantly emptied against the tall windows of the Chairman's living room. Even though it was still mid afternoon, several lamps had to be lit around the room to make up for the light deficiency, as the sun was buried behind a thick layer of dark grey clouds ever since that morning.

The afternoon PE classes were cancelled that day, for obvious reasons, and Yuuki made use of the extra time. She was kneeling on a flat cushion beside the windows, a low ironing boar spread in front of her, carefully ironing a handkerchief. The only sounds in the room were made by the rain drilling against the panes of glass, the low rumbling of thunder, the occasional puff of hot air released from the smoothing iron, and the soft rustle of paper whenever the Chairman turned over a page of the newspaper he was reading.

After a while, the Chairman exclaimed: "The world is certainly going to pieces!" He folded the newspaper in half and placed it on the couch beside him. "I don't even know why I read this anymore, it only makes me angry," he sighed and rubbed his temples. Leaning his head against the backrest he said: "From now on, I'll only read the funny pages."

Yuuki giggled. "They're not that funny, dad," she warned.

The Chairman sighed again. "I know, but I'd rather read about a bird mechanic telling a bird customer to _wing it_, as his car cannot be repaired, rather than about a war here, a crisis there and a heated argument somewhere else."

Yuuki giggled again. "That was a good one, I admit."

The Chairman absentmindedly ran his hand through his ponytail and looked at his daughter. "Apropos, Yuuki, you've been ironing the same handkerchief for a good half an hour. That can't be very entertaining, either."

Yuuki smiled softly, never taking her eyes off the task in front of her. "I don't mind, it's something important to me."

The Chairman took off his glasses to wipe away a smudge from one lens with the hem of his robe and said: "Well, don't burn a hole in it if it's that important."

"I won't," said Yuuki brightly. "It's almost done." And she proceeded to carefully fold it into a perfect square.

The Chairman put his glasses back on and looked out of the window, or at least attempted to. One couldn't see much past the rain. "Incredible," he remarked after a particularly violent splash. "If this keeps up, you'll be relieved of your duties tonight as well. I just don't see anyone sneaking around in this weather."

Yuuki pressed the iron onto a folded strip to flatten it properly. "I wouldn't be so sure, dad. Some of the fan girls are really persistent."

The Chairman snorted lightly. "Somehow I envy them," he said and dramatically threw his arms up towards the ceiling. "Ah, to be young and in unrequited love!"

Finally satisfied with her work, Yuuki reached over to unplug the smoothing iron.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

Walking down the familiar hall leading to their old bedrooms, Yuuki ran her thumbs over the now clean and smooth handkerchief. Her effort did pay off. It was as good as new.

Without knocking, she opened Zero's door and entered the dark empty room. She knew that Zero wouldn't be there, the Chairman told her that he's gone to the stables to keep the horses calm during the thunderstorm and that he'd probably wait it out there. He didn't even turn up for dinner.

Yuuki slowly crossed the room and stopped by Zero's bed. She ran her thumbs over the soft material one more time and then she slowly placed the handkerchief on the night table. She wanted to return it to him personally, but in the end she decided that this would most likely be the less embarrassing method…for the both of them.

She was about to turn around and leave when she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning back, she leaned over the night table to look out of the window that was right behind it. Night was quickly approaching and with the thick clouds and heavy rain still falling relentlessly, there wasn't much left to actually see. However she could swear she caught a glimpse of something moving under the trees…

Yuuki gasped.

A hand dressed in a white uniform sleeve slowly wrapped around the trunk of one tree from behind, shortly followed by a head sporting a shock of blond wet hair, stealthily looking off into the depths of the forest.

"What the… Aidou-sempai?" murmured Yuuki to herself.

At that moment, Aidou's head snapped up towards her direction as if he heard her and he fixed his ice blue eyes on her. Seconds ticked by as they steadily stared at each other, Yuuki's expression being that of surprise, Aidou's of mischief.

All of a sudden he smirked, stuck his tongue out at her, and disappeared into the darkening forest.

Yuuki blinked, then groaned. "No, please, not tonight." She gestured wildly towards the outside. "Not when it's… ARG!"

She spun around and dashed out of the room.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

Kaname and Ichijou walked side by side down the main stairs of the Moon dormitory, Kaname dressed casually, Ichijou in his school uniform.

"Notify the rest of them of my decision and send a message to the Chairman," said Kaname authoritatively.

"Right away," smiled Ichijou and hurried back up the stairs.

Kaname calmly walked down the rest of the stairs and turned to look at the small group of Night class students sitting on the sofas of the entrance hall, already dressed in white school uniforms.

Ruka was the first one to stand up. "Is something the matter, Kaname-sama?" she asked.

"No," answered Kaname, gesturing at the others to remain seated even in his presence. "I only came to inform you that the classes are cancelled for tonight."

At this, Senri leaned back against the sofa's backrest and yawned. "Could have stayed in bed," he mumbled.

"My words exactly," sighed Rima, laying her head against his shoulder.

"Quiet, you two," hissed Ruka, crossing her arms. "Don't be disrespectful. I'm sure Kaname-sama has his reasons."

Kaname smiled softly for himself and turned his head towards the entrance door. "Indeed," he said almost wistfully. "The weather is truly unpleasant." Saying this he looked back at the vampires, all of them now sporting mildly surprised expressions on their faces. "You may go back to sleep if you wish." Then he turned around and headed for the stairs again, leaving a very puzzled group behind.

When their beloved leader finally disappeared within the entrails of the building, four pairs of wide bewildered eyes turned to look at each other.

Ruka, remaining on her feet, whispered quietly: "Did he just say…the weather?" And she turned her head to look at Kain quizzically.

Kain only shrugged.

When the others continued discussing it in hushed voices, he turned his gaze to the rain outside and frowned.

_What are you thinking, Hanabusa?_

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

Yuuki made it out of the house through the back door, quickly shutting it behind her. The rain instantly matted her hair and trickled down her neck, soaking the collar of her shirt. She shivered at the feeling and darted into the woods, seeking at least some shelter under the leafage of the trees.

She had no idea where to go from there but for some reason, she was sure he'd make himself known. She ran a bit further to the tree where she saw him earlier from Zero's window, and waited.

Though the rain wasn't falling as heavily under the trees, it seemed as if the small raindrops clustered into bigger ones, making Yuuki wipe the water out of her eyes whenever such an enhanced raindrop splattered against her forehead. Her uniform quickly became wet, making it cling to her skin uncomfortably. She gritted her teeth against all discomfort and waited.

And Aidou didn't make her wait very long. He stepped out from behind a tree not too far away from her, his light uniform making it easy to spot him in the dimness.

Yuuki braced herself for the chase. She knew the drill.

His lazy smile taunted her as he seemed completely unfazed by the weather conditions.

Yuuki wiped the wet tresses of her bangs from her eyes and asked in a normal voice, knowing he'd have no trouble hearing her over the downpour: "Couldn't you've picked a different day for this?"

Aidou's smile widened, showing his pearl white teeth, and shook his head, sending droplets of water flying.

Yuuki sighed and slumped against the nearest tree. "You are so getting punished…"

She could see that he said something, as his lips formed words, but she couldn't hear anything. Right after that he saluted her and leisurely jogged off between the trees.

And Yuuki gave chase.

As she almost caught up with him, Aidou effortlessly sped up, quickly changing directions, darting around trees, always letting her almost grab the back of his uniform, only to move away from her hand at the last moment. He graciously jumped over bigger puddles, used branches as swinging posts, all the time looking flawless and as if without a care in the world.

Yuuki on the other hand has had it. She was slightly out of breath, her clothes were soaked through, her shoes were full of water, and both of her hands and ears were becoming numb with the cold. This needed to end, fast.

But in one unobserved moment, and one misplaced step, the slippery ground gave way beneath her foot and she went sprawling in the mud, face down.

She remained still for several seconds, partly from the sudden shock and partly to asses any possible damages. Finding none, she slowly lifted her head and a pair of surprisingly polished shoes came into her view.

A second later, the owner of those shoes doubled over with laughter.

"AHAHAHAHA!" Aidou laughed. "AHAHA, man, what a- HAHAHA!"

Yuuki ground her teeth in suppressed anger and pushed herself to her knees with a groan.

"Your face! AHAHA! Is that a new way of getting a facial mask? AHAHA!"

Yuuki wiped her face with an already sullied sleeve of her uniform, spitting some of the mud out of her mouth.

Aidou was obviously enjoying himself, hitting his knee repeatedly for good measure, howling with laughter at her expense.

And Yuuki's had enough.

Aidou's laughter came to an abrupt halt when a ball of wet mud splattered against his chest, dirtying his until then pristine clothes. He looked at the goo slowly running down his front with a horrified expression, and then looked back at Yuuki, pointing an accusing finger at her.

"Y-You!" he stammered, looking back down at himself. "You threw this…this…"

"I did," replied Yuuki evenly. "Though I admit, I was aiming at your face."

His head snapped up at her calm admission. "But that's…YUCK!" he exclaimed, childishly stomping his foot, only to accidentally send more mud flying and spattering his white pant leg. "ARG! Not the pants, too!"

His hopelessness was so amusing that Yuuki couldn't help it. She giggled.

What a grave mistake.

The second he heard the sound, his complaints stopped, his back straightened, and he looked down at her with cold narrowed eyes. "You laughed," he said in a dangerous voice.

Yuuki snorted. "You laughed first," she reminded him.

"Nobody laughs at me."

Yuuki regarded him strangely. "Excuse me, _Your Highness_, I had no idea it was forbidden," she said, getting to her feet, trying to wipe off some of the mud that clung to her uniform.

Aidou took a step closer to her. "Are you mocking me?"

Bracing a hand against the trunk of the nearest tree, Yuuki bent down and took off one of her shoes to pour the water out of it, completely ignoring his attitude. "You think?" she mumbled.

Aidou closed his eyes in exasperation and ran a hand through his dripping hair. "I've planned this differently, it shouldn't have been such a bother," he said under his breath.

But Yuuki heard anyway. "Planned? You're actually following a plan?" She laughed again. "What exactly were you up to? Trying to get me ill? Cause that plan might still work out, you know," she said, taking off her other shoe.

Aidou took another step closer to her. "I will not be mocked," he hissed.

Yuuki sighed. "Look, Aidou-sempai," she said in a resigned voice. "Whatever it is you're trying to accomplish, it'll have to wait for another day. I'm drenched, dirty, and cold, so I'm just going to ask you to kindly return - "

"You're not cold enough," was all he said as he took one more step towards her which brought him right in front of her.

Yuuki blinked up at him in confusion. "Wha-" but she stopped short, suddenly hearing a strange crackling noise. She looked down to where the sound was coming from and gasped, quickly yanking her hand away from the tree, as a thick layer of ice was eerily crawling up its trunk.

She took several steps back, watching Aidou carefully. "Aidou-sempai…"

"You've ruined my uniform," he said in a detached voice, slowly advancing towards her.

"Hey, that's not fair! Look at me!" she retorted, gesturing at her ruined clothes.

"You dare to order me around."

"I've never - "

"And you have the nerve to mock me."

Yuuki gave up on reasoning with him and said in a small voice: "It's kind of hard not to."

Aidou's eyes flashed dangerously and his hands fisted at his sides.

"Aw, come on," said Yuuki defensively, "You're like an epitome of double standards!" She waved a hand in his direction, refusing to acknowledge that the ground around him was covered in a sturdy layer of ice. "How come you're allowed to laugh and I'm not?"

Aidou tilted his head to the side. "You don't like double standards? Fine," he said, putting one foot behind him, as if preparing for a race. "You've chased after me…" he trailed off and left the sentence hanging.

Something in Yuuki's mind clicked into place. "Oh."

She spun around and ran for it at the same time as long strips of ice sprang after her.

She ran as fast as her legs and wet clothing would let her, zigzagging between trees and bushes. She winced when a considerably large spear of ice smashed against a tree she ran past only a second before. Never pausing in her mad dash deeper into the school grounds forest, she ignored the fact that the raindrops falling around her were slowly turning into snowflakes.

The rows of trees suddenly gave way to a small clearing and she skidded to a stop in the middle of it, for on the other side stood Aidou, hands behind his back and a smirk in place.

Yuuki breathed heavily, eyeing him warily.

"Out of breath so soon, Yuuki-chan?" he asked innocently.

Yuuki said nothing.

"I've hoped we could go on a bit longer, but everything has to end at some point, I guess," he smiled.

Yuuki saw the ice coming. She wanted to duck back under the protection of the trees to her left but it was not to be. Her footing failed her for the second time that day, and she was met with the hard cold reality of the muddy ground again. Not wasting any time, she wanted to scramble to her feet quickly; however she soon realized she was stuck. Looking down her body, she saw that one of her legs was covered in ice up to the knee.

She heard laughter behind her.

"Let me go!" she said angrily, trying to free her leg in vain.

He was upon her in a second, whispering right into her ear. "In a moment, just give it some time."

Time? What time? She was about to ask him just that but suddenly a very strong wind started blowing, making her burrow her face into her folded arms under her, in order to protect her eyes. It was over in few seconds.

She instantly realized that Aidou's weight upon her was gone. Gingerly lifting her head, she looked down at her leg again, seeing the ice was gone as well.

Slowly turning her head to the other side, she gasped.

Aidou was being pinned to a tree by a hand that was tightly wrapped around his neck. The person to whom the hand belonged had his back turned to her, but she had no problem identifying her saviour.

"Kaname…sempai…"

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**A/N**: *sigh* I'm such a bad bad writer. My updates are so sporadic…

I was actually playing the sounds of the rainforest as background music for writing this chapter. It was fun.

As always, let me know if you find any mistakes.

Other that that, let me know if you've liked it ^_^

Take care,

Matylda


	12. Chapter 12

…

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**Bloody nurse**

**Chapter 12**

Yuuki dared not move. She stayed on the cold soggy ground, rain falling all around her, its sound being the only audible thing in the clearing. She stared open-mouthed at the two vampires not too far from her, pressed closely together against a tree.

Aidou hung limply from Kaname's hand; as if he weighted nothing, Kaname pushed him up the tree trunk, so that his feet hung above the ground. Aidou's face was calm, though Yuuki strongly believed that position must have been very uncomfortable, but the only sign of any resistance on his part was his own hand which was loosely wrapped around Kaname's wrist. It seemed as if they were having a silent conversation. Or at least, as if Kaname was conveying some unpronounced threat.

Suddenly Yuuki remembered how easily Kaname had torn through Ichijou's shoulder, and all he did was escort her to his chambers. What would become of Aidou? A wave of fear ran over her at the thought. He might have been an idiot but he certainly didn't deserve to die.

"Kaname-sempai," Yuuki spoke up, her voice panicky. "Please don't."

She had definitely caught his attention, for he turned his head slightly in her direction. This spurred her on.

"Don't hurt him. It was just a game. A stupid one, I admit, but we often do this, right Aidou-sempai?" She laughed uneasily.

At this, Aidou only rolled his eyes.

"It's to keep us in shape. Well, me at least. Though we usually pick a better day-"

"Yuuki," Kaname interrupted her rant.

"Yes?" said Yuuki in a small voice.

Kaname turned his head to her fully and opened his yet again bright blood-red eyes. "Be quiet."

Yuuki swallowed thickly. She gazed through the rain into the twin pools of deep red, her breath hitched. She had seen those eyes before, as well as similar eyes of many others. A slideshow of many such pairs of eyes ran through her mind. With a quiet gasp, she severed their connection and let her eyes fall to the wet ground before her. "Y-Yes," she answered in the smallest of voices.

Kaname slowly turned his head back around, fixing Aidou with a cold stare. He tightened the hand around his neck for emphasis and spoke in a chilling voice: "I will deal with you later." Releasing his hold on him, Aidou slid down to the ground into a well practised position on one knee, his head bent down, showing his total submission.

"You're dismissed."

And Aidou disappeared with a short blast of cold air.

Yuuki sat there with bated breath, completely at a loss what to do. He was angry. He was _blood-red_ angry. And she was tired, cold, drenched, and dare she admit it – scared. For the first time in so long, she felt very out of her element. And for once, she just wanted to go home…

She was startled when an expensive looking pair of black leather shoes stepped into a puddle right in front of her. She fixed her eyes on them, refusing to look up. They were a nice pair. Didn't he realize they were probably filling up with water by now? What a way to ruin them.

She heard a sigh somewhere above her head and suddenly, Kaname was crouching down in front of her. She quickly averted her eyes to the side with a slight blush colouring her cheeks because his sudden change of pose brought her gaze to a very inappropriate place to be looking at.

She heard the sigh again and felt a coat-clad arm sneaking around her back and under her knees. At this her head snapped up so fast, she almost hit Kaname in the chin.

"W-What are you doing?" she squeaked, pulling away a little, slightly mollified seeing that his eyes returned to their beautiful burgundy colour.

"What I must do," was his only reply. Without further ado, he picked Yuuki off the ground, cradling her to his chest bridal-style, and stood up. He looked down at her and gently said: "Close your eyes."

Yuuki was confused. "But-"

"Yuuki," he insisted.

She regarded him quizzically for a moment, but he only stared back at her with an impassive expression. After a while, she shrugged and did as he asked. _More like ordered_.

The strong wind from before was back, whipping the wet strands of her hair against her face, making her shiver with cold.

When it stopped before she could even express her slight discomfort, she slowly opened her eyes and was met with a strange sight. A glass door, covered with deep coloured heavy curtains from the other side. Confused, she turned her head and her gaze fell on a tiled floor, a white banister, and finally – a dark horizon.

"We're on one of the balconies," Kaname answered her unasked question.

"The Moon Dorm?" Yuuki almost whispered.

"My chambers, to be exact," he said and proceeded to push open the glass door with his foot.

They entered, finally getting out of the rain, Kaname still holding Yuuki in his arms. The room was dark; Yuuki could barely make out various shapes of what she guessed to be furniture.

Kaname stopped as soon as they were inside and, again using his foot, closed the glass door behind them. He skilfully toed his leather shoes off and leaving those by the door, carried Yuuki further into the room.

Yuuki was about to ask to be put down on her own two feet, however she quickly forgot her thoughts and gasped in surprise instead. As they moved through the room, every single candle they've passed seemed to flicker to life on its own, casting a low glow about their surroundings. Yuuki finally had a chance to look around. She indeed found herself once again in Kaname's chambers and she couldn't help but look at the carpeted floor, checking for deep stains in the plush material. Seeing none, she breathed a silent sigh of relief.

Not paying much attention to where they were headed, she was surprised to find Kaname opening a simple door which she had never even noticed before. He carried her inside the still dark room and stopped after taking several steps. After a slight pause, he bent down at the waist and lowered the arm that supported the weight of Yuuki's legs, letting her gently slide back to her own feet.

Yuuki stood nervously fidgeting in the dark, as she felt Kaname move away from her, back in the direction of the door they came through.

A gentle _click _was heard and the room was flooded with bright sharp light. Yuuki hissed at the sudden change, her eyes used to the dark. She squinted in the light, being able to see nothing at all. When her eyes finally started to adjust, she tried to focus on what she was actually seeing: pale tiles. _Tiles?_

She lifted her eyes from the strange floor and was met with a beautiful sight. Kaname was leaning against a similarly tiled wall right across from her, his eyes boring into hers. His hair was wet, sticking in thin strands to his forehead and pale cheeks, framing his deep eyes. He was still wearing the long coat, now slightly smudged with mud on the front and the bottom hem. His feet were bare, a pale contrast against the black pant legs.

Kaname stared at her with an unreadable expression. After a while, making Yuuki more and more nervous by the second, he closed his eyes and slowly shook his head as if not believing what he was seeing. With a sigh, he opened his eyes and pushed away from the wall. With his long sure strides, Kaname brushed past Yuuki. Taking a deep breath, Yuuki turned her head after him, to find him leaning over an enormous corner bathtub, turning the knobs on and checking the temperature of the flowing water.

The room was suddenly filled with the roar of the flowing water quickly filling the tub and a burst of warmth from the rising steam. Yuuki suddenly realized just how cold and uncomfortable she felt in her soaked through clothes. She was so going to get ill…

Satisfied with the temperature, Kaname quickly added some oil and salts under the stream and fluffy foam started to form on the surface. Turning around, he saw Yuuki standing in the middle of the bathroom, her slight frame shivering, arms wrapped around herself, her school uniform dirty and ripped beyond recognition, both hair and face smeared with mud, looking at him wonderingly.

Yuuki watched with wide eyes as he approached her and stopped right in front of her, with a frown marring his face. All of a sudden he kneeled down in front of her and started to unlace her dirty muddy shoes. Yuuki's eyes widened even further. Locked in place, she didn't dare to move.

Finished with unlacing and loosening a shoe, Kaname took a gentle hold of Yuuki's calf with one hand and slowly pulled the shoe off with the other, proceeding to do the same with the other shoe.

Yuuki watched in amazement and profound embarrassment as he left the shoes where they fell and straightened back up, looking down at her. As if not to startle her, he slowly took hold of her wrists and loosened her arms from around her midsection. When he reached for the buttons of her uniform jacket and began undoing them, Yuuki's throat went dry. She blushed hotly, preparing to finally speak up, but before she could gather her thoughts, Kaname had already finished with the buttons and slid his hands under the jacket at the shoulders, in order to slide it down her arms, and he let it drop to the floor with a slight wet splat.

Afraid he would continue even further, Yuuki tried to form a sentence in her parched throat. "Kaname-sempai…"

"Wait here," was all he said before disappearing like only vampires could.

Yuuki stood there in the middle of the foreign bathroom, shivering, completely at a loss what to think. The water still roared away, happily filling up the tub with sweet smelling warmth.

With Kaname gone, Yuuki finally dared to look around the spacious room. Both the floor and the walls were covered in pale creamy tiles. The tub, huge as it was, took up almost one third of the room. In the opposite corner was a shower cubicle, surrounded by two glass walls, with no shower base visible. The third corner held the washstand made in a similar style as the tub, and above this was a wide rectangle mirror, now completely steamed up. In the last corner stood a bare wooden bench.

The whole bathroom seemed very sterile to Yuuki. Everything was simple, very pale in colour, almost too clean. There were no rugs on the tiled floor, no cabinets to hold towels or other necessities. Except for a couple of bottles on the edge of the tub, there was nothing to make the room look lived in.

Yuuki jumped in surprise as Kaname suddenly reappeared beside her, letting out a tiny squeak.

"Forgive me," he said. "I didn't mean to startle you."

Yuuki shook her head. "No, it's fine, I just…" Her voice trailed off because Kaname turned away from her towards the bench and placed something on it. He must have taken his coat off at some point, she realized.

Kaname turned back around to face her. "I've brought you some towels and a change of clothes."

"Oh," was the only thing Yuuki could bring herself to say.

"Although I'm not currently in possession of any women's clothing, so you'll have to do with mine," he said as he approached her.

"N-No, that's fine," she said again. "It's just that…"

He reached her at that point, standing right in front of her, looking down at her. "Just what?" he asked in a deep quiet timbre, reaching for one of her wrists.

Her heartbeat quickened. "Y-You don't have to do this," she said in a strangled voice.

"Yes, I do," he countered calmly, slowly pushing the ornate cuff links of her shirt through the holes. Reaching for her other hand, he set her second wrist free from the restraining confines of a drenched and dirty cuff.

Yuuki was starting to panic. "No, I mean, I could just go home." She tried to speak with a firmer persuasive voice, she really did, but it just wouldn't obey her with him being so close.

Kaname stopped all his movement and just looked into her wide eyes.

For a little while, Yuuki thought she must have gotten her point across, though she doubted that she herself even understood what point she was trying to make, confused as she felt. They were both silent, immobile, staring into each other's eyes.

Yuuki cleared her throat. "Um, Kaname-sempai?"

Without breaking their eye contact, Kaname began lowering himself to one knee. "I can't let you do that, Yuuki."

Yuuki only gaped at him. _What the hell does that mean?_

She gasped. Kaname suddenly grabbed the back of one of her knees, which were still clad in her formerly black over-knees socks.

"I won't let you go back until I take proper care of you."

Yuuki blushed. "T-That's really not-"

"Do not argue with me, Yuuki," he cut her off.

Yuuki fell silent immediately.

Finally breaking their eye contact, Kaname looked down at her knee. "I'm at the end of my patience."

And with that he took hold of her wet muddy sock with both hands and began to gently lower it over the knee.

Yuuki hissed in precisely the same moment as Kaname did, for the skin on her knee was apparently grazed. She hadn't even noticed until then, the pain reminding her that she had indeed fallen down a couple of times that very evening.

Kaname seemed transfixed with the shallow wound. He had paused, leaving the sock only half way down. His thumb tenderly smoothed over the skin right next to the grazed area.

Yuuki held her breath, not really knowing what to expect. Her knee was bleeding slightly right in front of him, after all.

Kaname took a deep breath and stood up elegantly. "You need to clean it properly," he told her gravely.

She certainly didn't expect that.

"I will…" She bit her lip out of a nervous habit. He was still standing too close to her.

Very slowly, his long pale fingers took hold of one of the loose ends of the red ribbon tied beneath the collar of her white shirt and – still very slowly – pulled, causing the bow to unravel.

"Use the shower first," he spoke up, still watching the movement of the ribbon, letting it fall to their feet. He looked up at her face and using the same hand, reached for a sodden strand of hair that was plastered to her cheek. Rubbing it between his fingers, he continued: "Wash all the mud from your skin and hair there."

He tucked the strand behind her ear.

"Use the bathwater to warm up and relax. It should be ready by the time you're done showering."

With that said, he turned and headed for the door, Yuuki following his movement with her eyes.

Grabbing the door handle, he looked back at her one more time. "And leave all your clothes on the floor; I'll have them dealt with later."

Yuuki watched as he closed the door and she was once again left alone. She felt as if her brain stopped working. A part of her was somewhat glad for that. She didn't really want to think. None of this made any sense.

She stood there frozen on the spot for another minute or two, and then finally she lifted her shaky hands to start unbuttoning her shirt that still clung to her uncomfortably. She looked at the door one more time, contemplating locking it, but then she remembered _that_ night and the fact that he can lock and unlock doors with just the power of thought.

Yuuki shrugged.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

Carefully getting out of the tub, Yuuki felt infinitely better. She was warm, clean, and her hair smelt like shampoo again. Crossing over to the wooden bench, she picked up a large white fluffy towel and began drying herself. Once she was dry enough, she picked up a fresh towel and wrapped it around her head.

Looking at the clothes Kaname laid out for her, she hesitated. The idea of wearing something of his was somewhat unnerving. It felt as if she was invading his privacy. Turning her head towards the filthy pile of clothes that used to be her uniform, she sighed. There's no way she could wear that. Her cheeks coloured when her eyes caught sight of one of her bra straps peeking out from under her skirt on the floor. Yes, the underwear had to go, too. At that realization, she felt both like crying and killing Aidou personally.

Turning her head back, she sighed again. She was mortified at the idea that someone will be ordered to come and clean it up. Perhaps she could ask someone for a plastic bag and do it herself back at home?

She shook her head. Kaname wouldn't hear of it, she was sure.

Taking a deep breath, she picked up a burgundy coloured shirt. It felt like the softest of silks in her hands…which it probably was. She pulled her arms through the sleeves and quickly did up all the buttons. Lifting up a black pair of cotton rich slacks, she saw something dark fall to the ground.

Surprised, Yuuki bent down to retrieve the fallen object. Straightening back up, she froze. Her brain jammed. Her cheeks burnt. Her humiliation was complete.

There was one thing worse than not having your underwear to wear.

And she was holding that in her hands.

_Wha-? He can't be serious._

She hung her head in defeat, blushing like crazy.

_Kill me now, please!_ She thought, quickly putting the nice black pair of boxer shorts on, instantly reaching for the slacks to cover that part of her humiliation up as fast as possible.

Yuuki groaned. This was _so_ not a good day. Grabbing the towel around her head, she angrily rubbed it against her scalp. Once it started being slightly painful, she stopped and dropped the towel around her shoulders, to keep her wet hair away from the shirt.

She looked down at herself and finally realized just how tiny she must be compared to Kaname. The shirt hung to her knees, her hands and feet completely disappearing in the clothes.

_I still look like a child,_ she thought, recalling a very similar image from her childhood, when Kaname lent her one of his coats.

She sighed once more and headed to the door, not knowing what to expect. Taking hold of the door handle, she took a deep calming breath, turned the lights off, and exited the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**A/N: **Anyone else would be humiliated like Yuuki, holding such an object?

Should you encounter any mistakes, please let me know.

Thank you for still reading this. I truly appreciate it.

Take care,

Matylda


	13. Chapter 13

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**Bloody nurse**

**Chapter 13**

Yuuki stopped right outside the door, looking around. The room was still considerably dark, even though some lamps were now lit. Once again she looked down at the carpet, recognising the place where she fell down, but seeing no stains marring the surface, she breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe it was just her imagination back then.

Everything was as it should be; only there was no sign of Kaname.

_I guess he's still in his room…_

Looking around for a place to sit and wait, Yuuki's attention was caught by an object on Kaname's desk which looked sorely out of place. Walking towards it, she realised what it was.

_What is one of Chairman's ridiculous bowls doing here?_

Picking it up, she noted the painted kitty cat on the bottom. _If you eat all of the soup, there's a surprise waiting for you at the bottom_, was what he used to tell her when she was little. They had a whole set of these back in the kitchen.

Yuuki fingered the familiar ridges of the flower pattern on the outside of the bowl, still puzzling over its presence, looking around the room once again. This time, her eyes were drawn to the glass cabinets which used to hold many expensive crystal wineglasses, the same ones Yuuki saw scattered around the room on that evening, but now it seemed to be completely empty.

Setting the bowl back down on the desk, Yuuki slowly walked towards the cabinets and stopped in front of them.

_Strange,_ she thought.

Although, there was something glinting at the back of the central shelf. Yuuki leaned closer, squinting at the object in the darkness of the room. It was a solitary wineglass.

_What happened to the rest?_ She wondered, leaning even closer without actually touching the pane. Looking more closely, it seemed to her like there was something inside the wineglass, but she couldn't really see what it was.

Curiosity getting the better of her, Yuuki bit her lip and looked behind her to check if she was still alone in the room, you never know with vampires. Seeing she was, she reached for the small knob. The cabinet door opened with a tiny _click_, and the scent of expensive wood and polish whiffled to her nose. Yuuki hesitated briefly and finally lifted her hand to reach inside.

"I've broken my own rule."

Yuuki gasped and turned around so fast she smacked into a firm silk-covered chest. A hand shot out to steady her by gently grabbing her elbow.

Yuuki blushed when she realised her nose was just a couple of inches away from Kaname's chest. She tried looking up at his face, taking a small step backwards in the process. She had to apologise for prying. _Apologise, damn it!_

Before she could however, Kaname reached past her into the cabinet and pulled out the wineglass, holding it by the stem, bringing it in front of Yuuki's eyes.

Looking at it this closely, she could see that sitting at the bottom of it was a glass shard.

"I told Aidou to throw away all his little treasures, yet I kept mine."

He was looking at the object in his hand with strange fondness in his eyes, twirling it slowly between his fingers.

_Oh_. Yuuki suddenly understood.

"W-What happened to the rest of them?" she asked in a small voice, desperately wanting to say something.

Kaname looked at her. "I had them removed. They no longer held any value for me."

Yuuki held in another gasp. His eyes bore into hers, and she took in his still wet hair, though probably fresh from the shower by now, and the midnight blue shirt he was wearing, with the two top buttons undone.

After a while, Kaname sighed softly and reached behind her again to replace the wineglass to its proper place.

Meanwhile, Yuuki's eyes followed the movement of his other hand, watching as it slowly took hold of the open glass door. He really had elegant hands…

Yuuki heard a deep chuckle and her head snapped up, to see him smiling softly down at her. It seemed as if he was waiting for something.

She looked down at his hand again and then back up at him.

And did it again.

"Oh! I'm sorry," she whispered in embarrassment when she realised her mistake and stepped aside to let him close the door. She moved backwards towards his desk, her hands nervously twisting in the overlapping sleeves of her shirt.

She stopped when she reached it.

"Um," she gulped. "Thank you for lending me the clothes. And the bathroom," she added.

Kaname turned around and started to move towards her, still barefoot, she noted.

"I-I was wondering, I'd hate to bother anyone with washing my clothes and all that, would it be ok if I took them back…with me…in a bag…or something?"

Her voice was growing weaker and weaker as Kaname was coming closer. Why couldn't her brain work in his presence just for once?

"Absolutely not," was the resolute answer, as he came to stand before her again.

"I was afraid of that," she whispered, looking down at her twisted sleeves.

They both paused, until Kaname sighed again. "I won't let you clean up the mess left in the wake of Aidou's foolishness," he said, reaching for her hands to detangle them.

"About that," she started, watching as he took hold of her right hand and proceeded to roll the overlong sleeve up over her hand. "Don't punish him, please. He is a little weird, and I don't really know what he was after, but I doubt he meant to do me any real harm."

"That is not for you to decide, Yuuki," he said, gently squeezing her now free right wrist before moving to the other sleeve. "Perhaps I shall start by making him wash your clothes-"

"No! No, that'd be an even bigger punishment for me! It's too personal, it'd be weird…"

Kaname chuckled. "It might be for the best. After all, I have to think of a punishment for you, too."

At that, Yuuki's head snapped up. "W-What? Why?! What did I do? I only did what is expected of a guardian!"

Finished with the second sleeve, Kaname shook his head. "You misunderstand. I was referring to the evening of two nights prior."

Yuuki blinked.

"You disobeyed my orders, and even persuaded another to do the same."

Yuuki's mind replayed Ichijou's punishment for her. She will always regret roping him into it.

"No matter," continued Kaname, "Aidou's actions resulted in your being outside in the rain, when I arranged for that not coming to pass."

At her puzzled look, he added: "I cancelled the night classes. Yet it turned out in vain." Kaname reached for the towel which was still around her shoulders and proceeded to press the ends of her hair with it.

Yuuki frowned. "Wait a second. You're not telling me you cancelled your lessons in the hope of keeping me inside, are you?" _That'd be insane…_

"Indeed, I am."

Her mouth fell open in disbelief.

"The reason why Aidou warrants a punishment is not only his disregard for my wishes; you were hurt in the process as well." And he let the towel fall to the floor.

Yuuki shook herself out of her stupor. _Hurt? Oh, the knee! _

"It's nothing, really, just a scratch, though I was meaning to ask you if you have any antiseptic around here, just to be sure…"

"We won't be needing that."

Suddenly Yuuki found herself momentarily in the air and before she could even gasp in surprise, she was deposited on the top of his desk, her feet dangling off the edge.

Kaname slowly retracted his hands from her waist, skimming them along her cotton covered thighs. When he reached her knees, he slid his fingers down along the sides of her calves, while lowering himself to his knees.

Yuuki felt frozen again, her mind grinding to a halt. She could only watch him with wide eyes, not being able to utter a single word of protest.

Kaname took hold of her injured leg and started to push the pant leg upwards, exposing first her toes, het ankle, then the length of her shin, until he finally - carefully - exposed her grazed knee and secured the fabric above it, where it met the thigh. Cupping the knee gently on both sides, he used his thumbs to gently massage the slightly pink skin around the wound.

"You've cleaned it well," he said, his breath fanning over the tender spot, which made Yuuki shiver delicately. "I'm glad to see you are capable of obeying me at least in this regard."

Before she could protest, he leaned in, parting his lips.

_Wait, he's not actually going to… _

Yuuki grabbed the edge of the desk with both hands and squeezed her eyes shut. It didn't hurt, she could barely feel it, he made sure of that, but boy did she feel mortified. It was all too much. She was wearing his clothes. She was wearing his _underwear_, for crying out loud! Couldn't she just go home? Did he enjoy her embarrassment this much? She felt the incredible heat in her cheeks and she just knew her face successfully resembled a radish by that point. Was this his way of punishing her?

_Not that I actually did anything wrong in my book…_

She whimpered at her mental discomfort.

Upon hearing the sound, Kaname retracted his tongue and looked up at her scrunched up face, a frown marring his own. "Does it hurt?"

Yuuki jerkily shook her head no, strands of damp hair flying, refusing to open her eyes.

Kaname sighed inaudibly and with a last caress of his lips to her knee, he drew himself upright again.

"Yuuki."

She made no sign of acknowledging him.

"Yuuki, look at me."

She even turned her head away from him.

"So stubborn," he murmured.

Cupping the backs of her legs, he slowly parted them and moved closer to stand between her knees.

Yuuki's eyes snapped open. Her gaze landed on the colourful bowl, sitting innocently beside her, the cat on the bottom forever stuck licking its front paw.

She felt Kaname draw even nearer. She shivered again when his warm breath fanned against her shoulder, his hands still rested on her legs.

Yuuki gulped. _Say something._

His nose bumped against the loose collar of her shirt.

_Say something, damn it!_

"What's my father's bowl doing on your desk?"

It worked. Sort of. Yuuki felt Kaname pause.

"Are you truly curious or is this just the means of diminishing your embarrassment?" he asked against her shoulder.

Yuuki bit her lip, still looking away. "Both," she answered truthfully.

Kaname chuckled and pulled slightly away from her.

She chanced a quick look at him. He was smirking. Somewhere deep inside, she felt a slight twinge of anger at that. He was enjoying it.

"If you know I'm this embarrassed, why do you keep putting me in these situations?" she asked in an accusing tone.

"And what situations would those be?"

"This!" she exclaimed exasperatedly, whipping her head around to fix her eyes on him. "The knee, the bathroom, these clothes, the casual sniffing…"

"Casual…sniffing?" he repeated after her, the smirk still present.

Yuuki huffed in annoyance and crossed her arms over her chest.

Kaname laughed lightly. "Yuuki, it is only natural I want to take care of you. I want to personally see to your well being. As for the sniffing, as you call it, I am drawn to your scent, you know that. My aim is not making you feel uncomfortable; your embarrassment both amuses and saddens me. I feel as if your trust in me is waning…"

Yuuki looked up at his eyes and they really looked sad by the end of his speech.

"I trust you. Completely. It's just…" She searched for the right word, "…weird."

_Smooth. Very eloquent. _

Kaname sighed and reached for her left hand. "It is not; not for me." He pulled the hand towards his lips, with the intention of kissing it, but stopped short of doing so. Frowning, he turned her hand over and exposed her palm.

Examining it for some time, he asked in a much darker tone than the gentle one he was using up until then: "Tell me, Yuuki, where you trying to feed someone else your blood?"

Yuuki blinked in confusion.

"I distinctly remember sealing this cut before."

The realization dawned on Yuuki. The Band-Aid must have slipped off of her hand somewhere outside and she didn't even notice.

Locking his eyes with hers, Kaname once again lowered his head towards her hand and ran his tongue over the length of the cut, sealing it with his lips.

Yuuki's blush made a fast reappearance but she refused to drop her gaze this time.

"Who was it?"

"Huh?" she answered detachedly, somewhat dazed.

"Who did you feed?" he asked, tightening his hold on her wrist.

"No one, it was an accident."

"Yuuki."

"It wasn't intentional-"

"I cannot fathom a plausible enough scenario where you _accidentally_ cut your hand in the exact same place as before. This was done with a purpose in mind. What purpose was it?" His voice was sharp and urgent.

"No! No purpose, I… I don't know!"

"Were you trying to feed Kiryuu the same way you fed me, in the hope of keeping his fangs away from your flesh?"

"No, that's not-"

"What disappointment it must have been to find his fangs imbedded in your throat, despite the effort. Do not attempt to lie; I can see his recent mark on you from here."

"I didn't…"

"Had you asked, I would have told you. A mere taste of your blood would send his instincts into an uncontrollable frenzy, his fangs elongating, smelling nothing but your life essence and hearing nothing apart from your heartbeat and the blood rushing beneath your skin. Feeling your warmth next to him, he would not be satisfied with a mere sip. His wild instincts would lead him to the source, not the offering. He would-"

"Stop! No more!" Yuuki jerked her hand out of his hold and covered her ears. "It wasn't like that, you're wrong! I don't know what happened! I broke a plate. I wanted to clean it up, but I kept seeing this room, right here, like I was back here, I don't know! And then my hand was bleeding again, the blood was warm and dark, and I just…I just wanted…"

Yuuki shook her head violently, squeezing her eyes shut even tighter against the images pouring suddenly forth, the redness, the table cloth covered in crimson blood, her hands covered in blood, dripping down her wrists; the scent, the warmth… the taste…

Yuuki gasped as the images suddenly stopped and she realised she was still sitting on Kaname's desk, staring into his wine-coloured eyes, with his warm hands placed on her hips, as if to keep her securely in place.

"Yuuki?"

She gulped, her throat dry. "I…wanted to taste it…"

Kaname's eyes searched her pale face. "Did you?"

Yuuki nodded.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**A/N:** Honestly, I didn't expect an update at least until the end of June. To some of you, I've even conveyed this piece of information.

Alas, here I am, fed up with my responsibilities, finding time to do what I actually enjoy doing. Typical me. Oh well.

The next chapter will definitely not appear before the end of June.

If you're still reading this, consider this chapter dedicated to you.

Take care,

Matylda


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